Resources

Police enforcement, that is an arrest, or giving someone a summons or citation, is wide-reaching and is the first step someone takes into the criminal justice system. Enforcement of all forms but arrests in particular have substantial effects on communities, officers, and the nation. This interactive visualization tool enables users to better understand arrests.

In this report, readers will find information about the need for greater access to policing data, an overview of the Vera Institute’s Arrest Trends tool as well as several initial findings gleaned from it, and future directions for this work.

A report with policy recommendations to the city of Austin, Texas on first response to mental health incidents. This resource includes the extensive report and findings by the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI) as well as their policy recommendations to improve mental health crisis intervention.

This toolkit is intended to help activists, organizations, and communities identify and act on solutions to change policing for the better in their own communities.

This report was developed to give individuals, communities, activists, advocacy organizations, law makers, and police departments the knowledge to co-produce public safety. The best practices recommended here are adaptable to every department, in every community across the nation; the ultimate goal is fair, safe, and effective policing that respects and protects human life and ensures safety for all.

A report analyzing a federal survey with findings on the amount of people arrested and jailed each year and the frequency at which those individuals are cycled back into jail. Analysis shows that repeated arrests are related to race and poverty, as well as high rates of mental illness and substance use disorders. PPI found that people who are jailed have much higher rates of social, economic, and health problems that cannot and should not be addressed through incarceration. This report also includes policy solutions that can break this cycle of incarceration by addressing people’s needs in their communities rather than through the criminal justice system.

A series of reports from 2010 to 2014 documenting data and trends on school-based arrests of Chicago youth.

There is a pressing need for data-informed strategies to identify 911 calls that present a true public safety emergency and require an immediate police response, while responding to other calls in ways that do not tax limited policing resources and promote better outcomes for the people involved and the communities where they reside. This report summarizes the current state of 911 research, discusses the problems and potential of current 911 data collection practices, and recommends steps that law enforcement and emergency communications professionals can take to conserve resources and help ensure that the right response reaches the right caller at the right time.

Ending mass incarceration and repairing its extensive collateral consequences must begin by focusing on the front end of the system: police work. Recognizing the roughly 18,000 police agencies around the country as gatekeepers of the system, this report explores the factors driving mass enforcement, particularly of low-level offenses; what police agencies could do instead with the right community investment, national and local leadership, and officer training, incentives, and support; and policies that could shift the policing paradigm away from the reflexive use of enforcement, which unnecessarily criminalizes people and leads directly to the jailhouse door.