Congratulations to Dr. Jonathan Reid on his new publication at Journal of Crime and Justice. Dr. Reid, together with co-authors Dr. Ling Ren (professor at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha), Allison Kondrat (doctoral student in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Sam Houston State University), and Kyle J. Lemcke (graduate student in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha), published a paper titled "Police response to opioid overdoses in Texas: the impact of training on officers’ attitudes and perceptions."
This study examines how a pilot training course developed by the narcotics enforcement team of a large sheriff’s department in Southeast Texas impacts U.S. law enforcement officers’ perceptions and attitudes toward opioid overdose-related topics. A pre-and-post-training comparison was conducted with 97 sworn officers, focusing on stigma-blame toward individuals with opioid use disorder, overdose prevention, police-led treatment referrals, and prioritization of tasks at overdose scenes. Results show that while training significantly improved U.S. law enforcement officers’ prioritization of high-priority tasks at overdose scenes, it had little discernable effect on views concerning stigma-blame, overdose prevention, and treatment referrals. These findings highlight the need for targeted curriculum enhancements to better align law enforcement training with public health objectives.
Congratulations, Dr. Reid!