ABSTRACT
Policing is a form of regulation that shapes public health in either deleterious or beneficial ways. This chapter seeks to illuminate the changing landscape of policing and, in particular, the rising significance of two inter-dependent threats to public health across the English-speaking developed world. One is the growing crisis of opiate use and misuse, now at epidemic proportions, involving heroin, prescription pain killers and illicit synthetic opioids. The second is the high prevalence of mental health disorders and illnesses, witnessed first-hand by police among people in various states of social and economic vulnerability. Linking to previous work on regulation through 'enrolment', this chapter identifies an emerging conception of police as street-level regulators of public health. It canvasses some recent initiatives designed to position police within plural institutional arrangements for regulating health and criminogenic risks. The chapter draws from the work of Grabosky as well as others who see policing as a form of regulation.
