The Policing the Pandemic Mapping Project was launchedon 4 April, 2020 to track and visualize these massive andextraordinary expansions of police power and the unequalpatterns of enforcement they are likely to produce. In doingso, we hope that we can bring to light patterns of policeintervention, to help understand who is being targeted, whatjustifications are being used by police, and how marginalizedpeople are being impacted. More broadly, we hope theproject will inform a larger conversation about the role ofpolicing in society, to scrutinize public health and policecollaboration, and to focus attention toward the harms ofcriminalization. Having an understanding of these patterns incoming weeks will help inform approaches to actively resistthe logic and practices of policing crisis and disease, ratherthan allow them to become widespread and normalized.Through the acts of identifying, reporting, and visualizingevents related to the policing of COVID-19, the projectoffers a living repository of publicly accessible data that canbe used by activists, academics, journalists, and communitymembers to analyze, discuss, and challenge the policing ofdisease. We encourage all people to use the data availablethrough this project in any way they wish.
Policing the Pandemic: Tracking the Policing of Covid-19 across Canada