Police, Policing and covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The past almost two years have brought many changes to our lives. The covid-19 pandemic was announced by the who on 11 March 2020, and social life soon changed significantly. Schools, universities, and kindergartens were closed down and many other work-related activities moved to the workfrom-home platform as stay-at-homeand curfew measures were adopted by almost all governments while others decided in favour of a much more liberal approach. Some industries or sectors thereof were badly affected, others, particularly the tourism and hospitality sectors, collapsed. This editorial is aimed at complementing the previous editorials by Estella Baker (2020) and Nina Peršak (2020). In social control activities, the police have crucial roles in providing people with security and safety, maintaining public order, and investigating crime. On top of this, the police play a vital role in community policing activities. External perspectives regarding policing and the police are critical, and so are the internal ones giving rise to questions about the role of the police in the covid-19 pandemic. Police organisations’ adaptation to the new circumstances in terms of caring for police officers’ health, long hours of police work, pressures by civil criticism of the police in controlling offenders for neither wearing protective masks or ignoring governmental regulations with a view to curbing the spread of the virus, such as the curfew and prohibition of gathering in public places, highlighted several challenges. This years’ cepol Research and Science Conference dealt with the role of the police in the times of the covid-19 pandemic. The conference organisers were cepol, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training, and the Mykolas Romeris University of Lithuania. Speakers were mostly from Europe and some from the USA and South Africa. In total, more than 550 participants registered for the conference. The conference was organised in six Editorial