Resources

Civil forfeiture allows police to seize property on the mere suspicion that it is involved in criminal activity. Prosecutors can then forfeit, or permanently keep, the property without ever charging its owner with a crime. By contrast, criminal forfeiture requires prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an owner is guilty of a crime and then, in the same proceeding, prove the property is connected to the crime. This report demonstrates that local, state and federal agencies use civil forfeiture to collectively forfeit billions of dollars each year.

In the wake of nationwide demonstrations for racial justice prompted by the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and countless other Black individuals, Los Angeles has become a focal point for critical discussions around police and community relations. StudyLA’s 2020 Police and Community Relations Survey focuses on the attitudes and opinions of city of Los Angeles residents toward the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) following this period of nationwide demonstrations. Residents were asked a range of questions to measure public opinion toward policing. Specifically, we gauge how residents feel that the LAPD is doing with respect to the many facets of its mission: to safeguard the lives and property of the people the LAPD serves, to reduce the incidence and fear of crime, and to enhance public safety while working with the diverse communities to improve quality of life.

This new collaborative document edited by Mariame Kaba outlines ten major steps required to successfully launch a new paradigm for real safety, and includes helpful messages and responses for those with doubts, existing institutions that help create real safety, a deeper dive on police and prison abolition, and more models to explore.

This report is based on rich interviews and engagement with movement technologists, organizers, researchers, and policy advocates about what liberation from surveillance and criminalization can actually look like. Astraea and Research Action Design (RAD) created this report as a resource for funders to understand what is at stake and what opportunities exist to support critical organizing at the intersections of decriminalization and technology. Throughout this report, you will read about surveillance, carceral technologies, criminalization, and policing. In some instances, we speak about these practices in tandem, and, in others, we hone in on one to provide deeper insight, but please bear in mind that these processes and practices—and their consequences—are inextricably linked.

This memo assesses the current landscape of work surrounding police abolition and reviews alternatives to policing in the context of police abolitionist frameworks, offering insight and sharing successful strategies for advocates in the field. This memo also offers several recommendations for advocates, activists, and organizers working on alternatives to policing as well as a list of resources. As communities develop strategies for keeping themselves safe from various threats and for managing various crises and emergencies, they also focus on harm from policing, including police violence and police harassment. Communities have approached this in several ways. Some advocates and organizations, such as Critical Resistance, argue that police and policing needs to be abolished altogether in order to recreate a model of public safety that is not centered on punishment and control. Some advocates argue for implementing a divest/invest framework that includes defunding of police and reinvestment of those funds in developing community infrastructure, such as community-based violence intervention, hospitals, jobs, mental health programs, and schools. This approach targets the underlying causes of harm and builds out alternatives to existing models of public safety.

This memo provides brief background information on the history of police unions in the United States and their role in relation to the policing profession. It also highlights the obstacles that police unions and their contracts create for accountability, reform efforts, and campaigns that challenge police union power in order to overcome those obstacles. The relatively successful case study of Austin, TX is detailed as an example for challenging police union power at the local level. Finally, this memo provides specific recommendations for research, organizing, and policy developments when challenging police union power.

Calls for reform suggesting the deployment of social workers instead of police in our communities overlook the past and present damage done by the child welfare system as co-conspiring with police. The primary goal of this brief is to discuss the ways the Department of Children and Family Services is interconnected with police through data sharing, predictive analytics, and direct partnership. We see this brief as just the beginning of a larger endeavor in understanding the harm of the child welfare system on children and families.

“Racism is a public health crisis,” according to a May 2020 statement from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). This means that racism — whether unintentional, unconsciously, or concealed — has affected Black Americans’ access to equal and “culturally competent” health care. This page goes into the effects of police encounters and footage of police brutality on Black Americans, as well as giving an overall view of mental health among the community. This resource also includes further resources for mental health help.

The ongoing scourge of police terrorism has reinvigorated an important national conversation about policing and incarceration — their history, purpose, and practice. While some have called for reforms, like stricter use-of-force policies and enhanced body cam protocols for officers, others have demanded more sweeping change. “Abolition for the People,” a project produced by Kaepernick Publishing in partnership with LEVEL, seeks to end that debate once and for all. Over the next four weeks, the project will publish 30 stories from organizers, political prisoners, scholars, and advocates — all of which point to the crucial conclusion that policing and prisons do not serve as catch-all solutions for the issues and people the state deems social problems.