Table 5.

Recommendations for policing during COVID-19.

Police-Community Relations
•Adapt to the changing expectations and demands of citizens at various points of a the COVID-19 outbreak and adopt different styles of policing during and after lockdowns.
•Design adequate messaging and social media strategies to efficiently use online communication to interact with affected citizens and ensure compliance with public health restrictions.
•Educate, inform and raise awareness about COVID-19 so that officers do not engage in discriminatory or militarised practices against affected civilians and communities.
Mental Health Support
•Institutionalise pre-crisis training policies to develop the skills and competencies needed for officers to prevent mental health problems
•Encourage and enable the adequate reporting of mental health complaints, and facilitate communication between first responders, peers, and supervisors, through supportive organisational practices.
•Provide appropriate interventions and treatments, such as counselling services, to officers and staff affected by COVID-19.
•Dedicate adequate resources to police officers and their families during and in the aftermath of COVID-19 to address officers' fears and anxieties.
Intra-Organisational Dynamics
•Consult experts and plan for further waves of the pandemic.
•Determine minimum staff levels and create staffing procedures to maintain them.
•Where possible, work-from-home policies should be allowed for officers in risk groups to protect their health and alleviate administrative burdens.
•Communicate crime prevention efforts clearly to the public to reduce the additional demand from COVID-19-related crimes.
•Triage additional activities and ensure tasks are prioritised to ensure additional demand is met.
Multi-Agency Collaboration
•Maintain a national communication infrastructure that allows for intra- and inter-agency communication and facilitates collaboration.
•Take stock of collaborative efforts and the most frequent interactions with partner agencies to allow for exercises and a strengthening of the relationships after the crisis.
•Critically assess shortcomings and issues of inter-agency collaboration and communication.