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Police and ICE presence at hospitals and health care facilities deters people from seeking care, including people with pending charges or at risk of arrest, people on probation or parole or worried about outstanding warrants or immigration orders
Armed security in healthcare places people at greater risk of violence, including the threat of firearms being used against patients and staff
There have been numerous injuries and deaths in hospitals at the hands of armed security and law enforcement responding to patients
Hospitals across the country are experimenting with different models to address the needs and concerns of patients and staff without the presence of armed security or law enforcement

Organize to get police and ICE out of health care facilities and disarm security, and invest in de-escalation
Decriminalize hospital policies around patient behavior, drug-use, medical holds, and other issues that commonly lead to calls for security or police
Declare your health care facility a sanctuary space from ICE and police - and enforce it!
Support and join organizers working to divest from campus and hospital policing and invest in care; coordinate with groups working on sexual assault prevention who understand the presence of cops in health care settings is harmful and does not prevent violence
Providers can help based on how they treat injuries in their medical reports (i.e. specifically noting when police or prison staff harm people, in records)

What does police presence look like in your workplace? How is police, probation, parole and/or ICE presence a barrier to care? Which communities do their activities focus on?
How does your racial identity inform how you experience police and/or ICE in the workplace, as a patient and/or provider?
Think about a time when police presence in a health care facility caused active harm to someone in your care or community. What supports would have been helpful to prevent that harm?
Read the stories of Alan Pean, and Jonathan Warner. What feelings did this bring up? Imagine a different ending to their stories. What would supportive and loving care have looked like for these community members?
Read and discuss one of the following articles as a group:
- Get Armed Police Out of Emergency Rooms
- WC4BL, Let’s Take the Punishment out of Healthcare

How long have police been present in hospitals and health care facilities in your community? How did they come to be there? What were the historical conditions and forces that led to this development?
VIew IC’s two-part strategy session webinar recordings on the history of policing in healthcare and current efforts to remove police from health care settings.

Think through scenarios in which police and/or security are typically called - such as patient “non-compliance,” enforcement of hospital drug policies, racial profiling of patients as “aggressive” or “drug seeking,”; if a patient is sexually explicit, racist, or homophobic with other patients or staff; if a patient becomes verbally agitated or physically aggressive with staff; when a patient is destroying property in the hospital, etc.
- What could be done instead of calling the police? How could you practice the world you want by focusing on care not punishment?
- What skills would you and/or others need to acquire or deepen to make this response a reality?

Imagine yourself in a future where the very idea of policing and punishment in a health care setting would be seen as ludicrous. What would it feel like to receive and give care in this future world?
Read Franny Choi’s poem the Museum of Human History or watch A Message from the Future