Recognition and Impact of Policing Families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Law enforcement presence and policing in the hospital have been increasingly reported in response to rare but significant incidents of violence in the hospital. (1)(2) The patterns of policing in the hospital have been shown to be racialized. (1) Specifically, inequitable policing can manifest as disproportionate use of physical restraints, security calls, and hypersurveillance of racially marginalized communities. (3)(4)(5)(6)(7) These racialized patterns are not coincidental but instead reflect the systemic nature of structural racism. Structural racism is a form of racism that is “pervasively and deeply embedded in systems, laws, written or unwritten policies, and entrenched practices and beliefs that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment and oppression of people of color, with adverse health consequences.” (8) Policing in the hospital has the potential to have negative effects on physical and...