Reimagining Public Safety
Urban Peace Institute’s Recommendations for Police Reform, Accountability, and Embracing Community Based Alternatives
UPI seeks to dismantle the economy of mass incarceration and invest in building a community-based public safety and health infrastructure that allows people of color to thrive. Public leaders across the country are looking for a quick fix, but there is no quick fix. Change is only going to come from a seismic shift in power away from police, police unions, and the justice system towards a transformative investment in community-led safety and health solutions. American policing needs radical restructuring. Public safety should be redefined by communities that experience over-policing and violence.
1. End Over-Policing of Communities of Color
End and divest funding from law enforcement practices that support systemic racism, use of force, and warrior style policing
End stop and frisk practices
End racial and gang profiling
End use of gang databases and injunctions
End police in schools
End police collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Decriminalize and de-prioritize enforcement of minor crimes
End for-profit policing and eliminate fines and fees for low-income people
2. End Police Violence & Brutality
End use of adversarial policing and aggressive suppression tactics
Transform use of force policies
Require police departments to bear the cost of misconduct; settlements should be paid out of police budgets
3. Reimagine Policing for Public Trust
Embrace policing that focuses on community well-being and building public trust as core value in communities of color
Transform policing approach from warrior-style to guardian-style policing
Recognize officers for exercising restraint and embracing relationship-based policing
Change promotional criteria and incentives for officers
Institutionalize and fund community-based pre-arrest diversion practices
Require relationship-based policing training for all officers
Require public agencies and police departments to engage with community-based training organizations and resident leaders
Require officers responding to school incidents have advanced training to work with youth
Law enforcement should embrace community-based alternatives to addressing safety for non-criminal offenses
4. Invest in Community-Based Alternatives to Public Safety
Divest funding from law enforcement practices that support systemic racism, use of force, and warrior style policing to fund alternative community-based public safety strategies
Build a comprehensive community-based public safety infrastructure focused on non-law enforcement approaches to neighborhood health and safety
Review public safety budgets at the state, county, and city level to reprioritize funding to improve community health and safety; redistribute public safety funding responsibilities between city, county, and state
End the use of police in schools and divest funding to support school mental health counselors, gang intervention and outreach workers, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and public health workers
Increase public and private investment in gang and street outreach
Expand the role of gang intervention and outreach workers to respond and de-escalate violence as an alternative to law enforcement
Increase investment and expand community leadership development to guide public safety initiatives
Increase investment in and expand the role of community-based mental health responders
Expand community-led and operated pre-arrest diversion alternatives
Expand behavioral health and addiction infrastructure with harm reduction approaches
5. Ensure Community-Led Police Accountability
Create police commission and civilian complaints offices including community oversight with subpoena power
Invest in community leadership training to ensure police accountability is driven by communities of color most impacted by over policing
Ensure expedient officer discipline and prosecution without pay when under investigation of an alleged crime or improper use of force
Assign independent prosecutors for use of force cases
Ensure citizens’ rights to record and film police is respected by law enforcement agencies
Establish policies that allow individuals to review police video and audio footage of their interaction with police without a court order
Require the use of body cameras and dashboard cameras, and require the expedient release of footage to the public
Enact consent decrees with strict oversight and accountability (federal and/or state)
End the application of qualified immunity doctrine to police accused of use of excessive and/or deadly force
End application of SLAPP motions by government agencies to discourage lawsuits seeking accountability
Require policing data publication for arrests, diversion, officer-involved shootings with disaggregation by race, age, and zip code
Ensure data transparency and make data available on officer misconduct, lawsuits, disciplinary actions, etc.
End police union interference in the oversight and crafting of police accountability
State legislatures must separate negotiation of contracts on police wages and benefits from law enforcement disciplinary procedures
State legislators must ensure transparency and public involvement in the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements for law enforcement
Revise state “Officer Bill of Rights” to ensure it does not interfere with officer accountability
Increase budget transparency for law enforcement agencies
