Policing and Mental Health

Abstract Modern urban policing regularly employs a proactive policing strategy, in which officers actively engage large numbers of citizens through stops and searchers to disrupt situations interpreted as indicative of criminal activity. Advocates of proactive policing argue that stopping, searching, and detaining people represent only a minor nuisance for those innocent of a crime, implying that the costs of police encounters are justified by any crime reduction benefits. However, increasing evidence points to the pernicious consequences these strategies have on health and well‐being. The adverse effects of policing, with a key mechanism of perceived unfairness, are shown to impact mental health.