Resources

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.

Today, Catalyst California’s (formerly Advancement Project California) new Reimagine Justice & Safety program released Reimagining Community Safety in California: From Deadly and Expensive Sheriffs to Equity and Care-Centered Wellbeing. This new report, produced in partnership with ACLU SoCal, reveals how sheriff’s departments across the state engage in patrol activities that undermine community safety, waste tremendous public dollars, and inflict devastating harms on communities of color. Highlighted counties include Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, and Riverside.

High rates and racial inequities in U.S. fatal police violence are an urgent area of public health concern and policy attention. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) have been described as experiencing low rates of fatal police violence, yet AAPI subgroups vary widely on nearly every demographic and economic metric. More granularly, Southeast Asian American groups displaced by US war in Southeast Asia suffered higher rates than others from the same region. Traditional racial classifications thus obscure high risks of fatal police violence for AAPI subgroups. Disaggregation is needed to improve responses to fatal police violence and its racial/ethnic inequities.

School resource officers (SROs) continue to be one of the most common approaches that schools use to promote safety. SROs are meant to prevent crime in schools, but also to build relationships with students and school personnel and act as a resource for conveying law-related information. Critics of SROs suggest that they perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline and have particularly negative consequences for students of color. In spite of these potential advantages and disadvantages of using SROs in schools, research on the effects of SROs has generally lagged behind, particularly in regard to outcomes beyond those related to crime and punishment. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of implementing SROs on outcomes related to school climate and suspension rates, with particular attention to racial differences in these effects and the role of school context. This study also examines how SROs perceive their roles and responsibilities and how these may be shaped by school contexts.

As acknowledged by the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, racism is a public health crisis in this region. Yet, rather than addressing the needs of the most oppressed citizens, the city and county continue to pour excessive funds into the police, who have played a central role in creating a fundamentally unsafe and unhealthy space for Black residents. We must decenter the police from the lives of Black people. Through steep cuts to police personnel and funding, the city and county can instead use those funds to meaningfully support the health and safety of communities.

The Advancement Project will be promoting a 3-part animated video series called How Cops Get Off, which breaks down the systems in place that are actively working against us to keep cops in power and unaccountable to those they swear to serve and protect.

Narrated by AP’s board member, Jesse Williams, each four-minute video in the series breaks down a major structure in our culture and laws that keep cops in power and unaccountable: the dominant narrative in tv shows, movies, and news, the protectors within our criminal legal system like prosecutors and police associations, and the laws that shields cops from accountability like qualified immunity. The series is centered around a 6 week-long culture change campaign that will not only drive people to watch and share the videos but also engage in conversations about our current system and drive action to local grassroots partners who are pushing for new models of safety.

This report breaks down all the recommendations we support, the ones we don’t, and why. We also look at potential revenue streams to pay for these shifts in practice and new community safety programs, analyze OPD calls for service data in a brand new APTP report, and highlight work already happening at the grassroots level that needs more investment. Such community programs are already keeping us safe — which is no surprise because #WeKeepUsSafe and #WeTakeCareOfUs.

This report comes through collaboration between Mijente, Perry Undem, the Community Resource Hub, and the Center for Advancing Innovative Policy. This report is the first national comprehensive study on Latinx attitudes about policing and public safety in the United States and Puerto Rico. We believe in our gente and our communities, that together we can envision and build futures beyond the constraints of punitive measures. That’s why we commissioned a national study and focus groups, to better understand Latinx experiences and develop strategic organizing interventions and resources. The results tell a story that mirrors the Latinx diaspora as a whole: our gente’s political perspectives vary drastically depending on any number of factors. Still, in analyzing thousands of responses across 11 different focus groups, it is clear that our gente believe that making communities safer is about resources, jobs, and education, not more police.

What is mental health? How can we be more whole and how can we advocate for systems that help all of our community members heal? In this episode, we look at mental health with two practitioners — Iresha Picot and Jacqui Johnson. Listen to their conversation that ranges from trauma to mental health crisis response to hip-hop. Learn about the policy changes that could make city services more just and what we all need to be well.