The ABCs of trauma-informed policing

This article is directly related to the first global Trauma Informed Policing and Law Enforcement Conference held in Melbourne, Australia in February 2024.

Abstract

Trauma-informed care and practice was developed over 20 years ago and is emerging as a way of working for the police, in corrections and courts, and broader contexts such as health and education services. I started my criminal justice career with South Australia Police in 2001. It was not until 2014 that I first heard the term “trauma-informed,” which was regarding victim services. Back then, it was unclear how it might be applied in practice. Soon after, I was appointed to the Parole Board of South Australia in 2015. As a Parole Board member, I have interviewed more than 1,000 adults, many with chronic offending histories and most with trauma histories. In this paper, I draw from local case studies and apply the SAMHSA (2014) trauma-informed practice framework to explore “trauma-informed” policing. Trauma is understood to mean the impact of adversity (i.e., potentially traumatic events and experiences) on an individual’s functioning and well-being. I outline the ABCs of a trauma-informed policing response: (A) trauma-informed policing requires an agenda, (B) trauma-informed policing is broad, and (C) trauma-informed policing is compassionate. Without the ABCs of traumainformed policing, police responses may be, at best, well-intentioned good practice, but they should not be considered to be trauma-informed.