The Urban Peace Institute believes public safety must be redefined to extend beyond the enforcement of punitive laws that negatively impact communities of color. This traditional approach does not reduce violence or increase long-term safety and only reinforces systemic racism. The economy built around law enforcement and the criminal justice system needs to be dismantled to make way for systems of care centered on education, healing, health, and justice. The momentum generated by Black Lives Matter and protests around the country to defund the police and reimagine public safety has already sparked serious policy decisions designed to invest in non-law enforcement practitioners.

Cities must build and invest in comprehensive community-based public infrastructures focused on non-law enforcement approaches to neighborhood health and safety. For example, gang intervention and street outreach efforts across the country have been recognized as essential to ensuring public safety in the most impacted communities. As credible messengers, community-based organizations have a deep understanding of community issues, trusted relationships with the individuals and communities involved, and specific knowledge surrounding neighborhoods crises.

Violence is a public health crisis that demands prioritization for community safety. Community-based organizations can more effectively address public safety issues, have greater impact, and save resources. These alternative approaches have strengthened the response to emergencies in places throughout the nation by preventing and reducing violence, providing cares services, and decreasing unnecessary law enforcement contacts. Investments in community-based organizations can reduce the over-reliance on law enforcement to generate improved public safety and health. We must build a robust, multi-sector public safety ecosystem that unites the interrelationship between health and safety. This will require a public policy shift to treat and fund community-based practitioners as essential rather than supplemental. Change will only come from a seismic shift in power away from government programs and policing approaches that harm communities of color and towards transformative investment in community-led safety solutions.

The Urban Peace Institute presents its strategy for developing a community community-led public safety and health infrastructure in its latest publication: Recommendations for Building a Community-Based Public Safety and Health Ecosystem.