Resources

There’s a shift happening right now. The call to defund police is louder than we’ve ever heard it. We can all answer that call and reshape what our communities look like. We made a toolkit to help you map what you can do in your cities. From Florida with Love, The Dream Defenders.

This resource is a reallocated version of the proposed NYC FY21 budget created by a broad-ranging group of abolitionists, including organizers, lawyers, mothers, artists, and lifetime New Yorkers, of many ages, ethnicities, abilities, and religions, who care about this city.

Although this document and these suggestions focus on the budget under the purview of the New York City Council and Mayor, there are many state-based policies, such as pre-trial detention, subway policing, and supervision, that must be changed simultaneously.

A compilation of resources, information, and actions on defunding (and abolishing) the NYPD, including ways to contact your representatives, get involved in organizing work, and learn about the city budget.

The Database for Police Abolition (D4PA) is a database-in-progress tracking proposals under consideration by decision-makers that would: 1) Defund and disarm police departments, 2) Diminish the role of policing in communities, and 3) Empower alternative visions for public safety. The proposals are compatible with a view “towards the horizon of abolition,” and avoid contributing to the legitimacy of policing as an institution for community safety.

This event was co-sponsored by Critical Resistance, Project NIA, Survived and Punished, Reclaim the Block, and Black Visions Collective. Panelists K Agbebiyi, Woods Ervin, Mariame Kaba, Dean Spade, and Kamau Wilson gathered to discuss the current state of abolition and community safety work and to assess current proposals for reform and potential alternative solutions to press for as we move forward in this moment of pushback against police violence. The video includes ASL interpretation.

Created by Beth Richie, Dylan Rodríguez, Mariame Kaba, Melissa Burch, Rachel Herzing, and Shana Agid. This resource explains community control of the police and community review boards, going over some criticisms/shortfalls and then offering potential solutions and alternatives.

This 2016 toolkit, developed by youth interns, contains activities and supplemental materials for exploring the costs of policing in Chicago and what community safety can look like beyond the police.

This document was first created in May 2020 and is an ongoing work in progress! We hope this can be a living and collaborative document. We recognize that there are many existing resources and google docs before this one on alternatives to calling the police. Our goal for this document was to compile some of these resources and place them in the context of anti-Asian racism, in Canada, during the COVID-19 pandemic—and what we hope can be a broader dialogue around interracial solidarity.

Two sets of guidance addressing law enforcement’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These documents follow early reports from New York and other cities that raised concerns of uneven, sometimes discriminatory enforcement, and confusion about how to reach isolated and vulnerable groups. Vetted with community organizers, academic experts, and law enforcement officials, this COVID-19 guidance compiles best practices for state, municipal, and policing leaders as they navigate this ongoing public health emergency.