Table 1.

The intersection of public health surveillance, policing, and racism: historical and contemporary examples

Community	Disease	Context	Public health surveillance	Surveillance-related harm
Historical cases
Chinese residents of San Francisco late 1800s	Cholera	Chinese people stigmatized as diseased, culturally inferior, and risk to white communities	Public health maps produced “evidence” that city officials used to target, cite Chinese residents	Maps were used in the policing of Chinese residents, and data provided rationale for their economic and social exclusion
Mexican communities, Los Angeles 1930s	Tuberculosis and syphilis	Mexican communities were marked both ill and illegal, therefore a risk of disease transmission for “innocent,” “clean” residents	Health organizations tracked Mexican patients to determine whether they discontinued their syphilis and/or tuberculosis treatment regimens	Mexican patients not completing treatment were deported. This rationale also resulted in Mexican patients without tuberculosis being deported
Black Panther Party and Coalition activism early 1970s	Violence associated with “urban” centers	Government agencies sought to surveil and incarcerate actual and potential activists that were protesting and organizing against racial and other social injustices	UCLA sought to establish a Center whose framework was that violence is treatable through medical intervention by investing in data (ie, behavioral) for the study and treatment of “violent” persons	While activists challenged the development of the Center, medicalization of violence increases criminalization of BIPOC communities as it locates violence within them and not structures
Contemporary cases
BIPOC community, predominantly Black; Detroit, MI37	COVID-19	Police already use facial recognition technology and cameras to surveil residents for actual or potential crime	Emergency stay-at-home orders issued to reduce COVID spread. Police used technology to identify noncompliance with COVID emergency orders	BIPOC disproportionately identified using police surveillance data for noncompliance, and fined (eg, $1000) and/or incarcerated
BIPOC community, predominantly Black; New York City, NY38	COVID-19	Before the pandemic, stop and frisk tactics used by New York police documented as racist and causing harm	Police enforce COVID social-distancing orders	Of 40 persons arrested for noncompliance with the orders, 35 were Black
Residents of Louisville, KY39	COVID-19	The GPS monitors were described as a better alternative to arresting and detaining persons	GPS ankle monitors were being used to enforce orders of isolation on individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 and allegedly noncompliant with stay-at-home orders	Electronic monitoring has been known to have adverse effects for those who are shackled to it

BIPOC, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color