Resources

There have been enormous spending and staffing increases within the criminal legal system (or, as it is more commonly called, the “criminal justice system”) at the city, county, state, and federal levels over the past few decades. Use this map and corresponding tabs to learn more about what has been going on where you live.

In this report, Communities United, Movimiento Poder, Reimagine Richmond, and the Social Movement Support Lab examine the 2022 budgets of the 20 largest US cities and their respective counties to determine whether their investments prioritize the Mass Criminalization System or Systems of Community Care. We analyze the size of these public investments, the ratio between them, the cost to local residents, how that translates into the city personnel that residents encounter on a daily basis, and how these dynamics have shifted over time.

In collaboration with Rutgers Graduate School of Education and the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity & Justice, this report highlights the disproportionate arrests of Black and Latinx youth by the Pomona Police Department (PPD). Our goal is to center the malpractices of a police department that does not receive the same attention as a large metropolitan police department yet suffers from similar systemic issues of racial injustice and police brutality. In response to the question “Where is justice needed most?” justice is needed most for Black and Latinx youth in Pomona, California. We honor the work of youth, parents, and community activists, as well as a social action nonprofit organization, Gente Organizada, who together have demanded accountability from its city leaders and PPD for the mistreatment of youth.

A chart that breaks down the difference between reformist reforms which continue or expand the reach of policing, and abolitionist steps that work to chip away and reduce its overall impact.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the George W. Bush administration launched the global “War on Terror,” capitalizing on public fears and calls for retaliation to justify military intervention and Islamophobic violence across the world. This war demonized and targeted Muslims, both abroad and in the United States. In 2002, the administration founded the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), forcibly reframing federal immigration services, emergency response, and data analysis under a mission to “secure the homeland.” This reorganization codified the false link between immigration and terrorism. Instead of making people safe, DHS and its corporate partners used “counterterrorism” to expand policing and surveillance in neighborhoods across the country, targeting immigrant and Muslim communities and intensifying the War on Terror at our doorsteps.

Question: Do structural interventions to abandoned houses lead to improvements in health and safety in low-income, Black neighborhoods?

Findings: In this Philadelphia citywide cluster randomized controlled trial of 63 clusters containing 258 abandoned houses and 172 participants, abandoned houses that were remediated showed substantial drops in nearby weapons violations (−8.43%), gun assaults (−13.12%), and to a lesser extent shootings (−6.96%). Substance-related outcomes were not reliably affected by the interventions, and no effect of either intervention was found for perceptions of safety or time outside for nearby residents.

Meaning: Abandoned house remediation was directly linked to reduced gun violence and may be considered in efforts to create safe and healthy communities.

Sexual violence is an everyday practice of policing. Even in New Orleans, where in 2014 the federal government placed the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) under a
consent decree, police sexual violence persists. Despite federal and local oversight, publicly available data and public records data reveal:

• At least 236 complaints of sexual and/or intimate violence
• By 189 NOPD officers between 2014-2020

These records confirm what many quietly know: police routinely perpetrate a spectrum of sexual harm in our communities. By centering survivors – particularly Black girls, women, and queer people in the South – we can better understand the scope of the everyday violence of policing. This factsheet highlights the urgent need for divesting resources away from policing and investing in social programs that meet survivors’ needs, affirm bodily autonomy, and actually keep us safe.

Nationwide, policymakers and the public are considering how best to address crime. Deeper insights on policing should guide decisions about its funding and role in the provision of public safety. Traditional cost-benefit analyses usually find policing to be “cost-effective,” meaning it creates benefits that exceed its costs. Yet a range of policing activities can result in “social costs” that are not typically considered. As a result of police activity, people can suffer physical and behavioral health problems; lose educational opportunities, jobs, and housing; and withdraw from civic engagement. An emerging body of research illuminates the extent of these social costs, which are borne primarily by Black communities and other overpoliced communities of color. Vera researchers created this report and fact sheet to fill a critical gap in understanding the holistic costs of relying on policing as a primary approach to safety.

As movements to defund and divest from policing and invest in community safety expand in the wake of the 2020 Uprisings, abolitionist organizers are increasingly grappling with questions around the role of the state in abolitionist futures, including:

• What do we imagine/advocate for instead of police and policing?
• What actions and behaviors do we think should be regulated by the state? How should they be regulated – who should be involved? What should they be empowered to do?
• How do we think resources should be distributed? By whom and how?

Our answers to these questions profoundly shape our organizing objectives and strategies, and the context in which they unfold. This Discussion Tool provides room for readers to ask and explore generative questions that open up a multitude of possibilities both drawing from and moving beyond existing analyses and frameworks.