851 - Policing With a Public Health Lens in South Dakota
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
About this episode:
Traditional police work has struggled to meet the needs of cities like Rapid City, South Dakota. Often, police are called to address situations that are related to mental health crises, homelessness, and substance use. In this episode: Rapid City's Chief of Police, Don Hedrick talks about what it means to police with public health in mind, the success of partnerships and outreach, and how a nontraditional approach helped Rapid City address an influx of violent crime.
Guest:
Don Hedrick is the Chief of Police of Rapid City, South Dakota and a Bloomberg Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Host:
Dr. Josh Sharfstein is vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a faculty member in health policy, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.
Show links and related content:
-
Law Enforcement With A Public Health Lens—Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine
Contact us:
Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.
Follow us:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhhhu.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.6 | Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith-Rodgers, producer of public health on call. |
| 0:35.3 | And today, what happens when a police chief goes to public health |
| 0:39.0 | school? Don Hendrick is the chief of police of Rapid City, South Dakota, and a doctoral student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
| 0:47.2 | He speaks with Dr. Josh Starfstein about wholesale changes in policing, informed by public health strategies, |
| 0:53.1 | that have made Rapid City safer and more |
| 0:56.1 | welcoming for all. Let's listen. Don Adrick, thank you so much for joining me today in Public Health |
| 1:02.6 | on Call. Are you out in Rapid City now? I am, and I really appreciate the invite and really appreciate |
| 1:08.9 | you having me here. I'm honored. Well, I'd like to start |
| 1:12.4 | by asking you to introduce yourself a little bit to those who are listening. So, as mentioned, |
| 1:18.1 | my name is Don Hedrick. I've been with the Rapid City Police Department. She's going on. This will be |
| 1:23.8 | my 23rd year here. You know, I started out as a line level patrol officer a long time ago and sort of just worked my way through the ranks. |
| 1:33.7 | You know, I didn't necessarily have intention of becoming the chief of police when I started. |
| 1:37.6 | Those are just sort of how the chips fell. |
| 1:40.0 | And I took over in 2020 as the police chief here, which was an incredibly challenging time for many people. |
| 1:48.4 | You know, we were dealing with COVID. We were dealing with, you know, many issues in conjunction with the murder, George Floyd. |
| 1:54.5 | We were dealing with protests. It was really just a very difficult time to jump into a position. |
| 1:59.4 | But, you know, I've got really an amazing |
| 2:01.8 | team around me and maybe I can bring up some of the ideas and concepts they've |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.