AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and the Law Enforcement Officer

• NCJ Number: 105196
• Author(s): T M Hammett
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 80 pages
• Contract Number(s): OJP-86-C-002
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: Abt Associates, Inc
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Training (Aid/Material)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Issues and Practices in Criminal Justice

Annotation

This report for law enforcement professionals provides information on the causes, transmission, and incidence of Acquired Immune Deficency Syndrome (AIDS) and discusses implications for police training, policies, and procedures.

Abstract

Medical research and epidemiological data indicate that AIDS is a very serious problem, but that the virus that causes AIDS is transmissible only by intimate sexual relations and direct blood-to-blood contact. Education and training must be the cornerstone of agencies' response to AIDS. Training should cover transmissibility and methods of preventing transmission and procedures for first aid, arrest, search, prisoner transport, evidence handling, and body removal. Agencies can either issue specific AIDS policies and procedures or revise existing communicable disease policies to address AIDS issues. Agencies also should consider legal and labor relation issues associated with reporting of incidents in which transmission of AIDS may have occurred, liability, transmission of AIDS among prisoners, and AIDS antibody testing. Appendixes include additional medical information on AIDS, a resources list, and examples of police AIDS policies and protocols. Chapter endnotes.