Dangerous People, Unsafe Conditions: The Constitutional Basis for Public Health Surveillance

Surveillance provides the data that epidemiologists use to identify threats, test strategies for managing those threats, and, once mitigation strategies are developed, identify dangerous people and conditions that should be subject to public health interventions. There are two types of public health surveillance, searches by public health investigators and reports of specific conditions or individuals by third parties such as physicians, medical laboratories, schools, and counselors. Here, Richards reviews the legal framework for administrative surveillance for dangerous people and conditions. In addition, he identifies key policy issues for maintaining an appropriate balance between individual privacy and public safety.