In a new policy statement, the American Public Health Association is urging lawmakers to treat police violence as a public health issue and to research the effects of the alleged problem on minorities and people with disabilities.

The statement was one of a dozen new policy positions adopted Tuesday by APHA's governing council during the group's annual meeting in San Diego. Others include opposing family-child separations along the U.S.-Mexican border, reducing the number of gun-related suicides, addressing the potential health impacts of fracking and reducing global child mortality rates.

APHA's statement on police violence has received the most media attention so far. In it, the group said police violence can cause death, injury, trauma and stress while disproportionately affecting marginalized populations.

APHA is urging federal agencies, localities and states to add death and injury by legal intervention to their list of reportable conditions. The group is also calling on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research on the health consequences of police violence, with a focus on minorities, people with disabilities or mental illness, people living in poverty, people experiencing homelessness, immigrant populations and LGBT populations.

No police organizations had responded to the APHA's statement as of Thursday morning but such a call is likely to be controversial. Earlier this year the National Association of Police Organizations urged members to boycott Nike after the company featured former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in its ads. Kaepernick was the first NFL player to take a knee during the national anthem in protest of what he said was police violence against minorities.

The full list of the newly adopted APHA policy positions can be viewed at http://bit.ly/2FqaarQ.

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