Mayor Ras J. Baraka joined Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and leading community safety experts on Thursday to announce the formation of a first-in-the-nation association of community-based public safety and violence prevention programs.
The Community Based Public Safety Association (CBPSA) will be comprised of key leaders and organizations representing major U.S. cities, connecting efforts from across the country to help advance pathways to safety that complement policing and reform the criminal justice system at a national scale. CBPSA will work to secure increased support to fund and build the capacity of public health-based violence prevention programs, which are essential to achieving and reimagining safety, especially in low-income communities and communities of color. As part of its efforts, CBPSA will educate policymakers, elected and appointed leaders, and the public about the critical role community-based public safety organizations in reducing violence, while working to professionalize the sector’s workforce through employment benefits and professional development.
“Newark has strategically invested in complimentary community-based public safety and public health responses to support police in reducing violence and crime, and our city is the safest it’s been in decades,” said Mayor Ras J. Baraka. “In June 2020, the City made an unprecedented decision to move five percent of the city’s public safety budget into a new Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery to provide additional support for community-based public safety solutions like the Newark Community Street Team, Newark Street Academy and the West Ward Victims Outreach Initiative that prevent and reduce violence by treating it as a public health issue.”
“When we invest in community-based public safety strategies, our cities are safer, our neighborhoods are more secure, our families face less violence, and our workers find greater opportunity,” said Mayor Garcetti. “Los Angeles is proud to stand on the leading edge of evidence-based solutions, rooted in equity and justice, led by our groundbreaking Gang Reduction and Youth Development initiative – and we will keep investing in innovative programs in our city and advocating for smarter policies across our country, because we know the returns will be exponential and the result will be a stronger future for all Americans.”
To ignite its efforts, CBPSA released a national study – Redefining Public Safety in America: A National Scan of Community-based Public Safety Initiatives – that details the various programs, how they work to reduce violence, and what is needed to bring them to scale. The timing of the report provides cities that are grappling with the increase of violence due to the economic instability of the pandemic with a roadmap for effective strategies to reduce violence and create healthy and safe communities at a fraction of the cost of traditional criminal justice and policing approaches.
“Most people think of police when they hear the words ‘public safety,’ however the public execution of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police has created an inflection point on safety in our country,” said Aqeela Sherrills, the Executive Director of the Community-based Public Safety Association, and a pioneer in the field. “If we understand violence as a public health issue, then we must equip those who are closest in proximity to the disease with the skills, tools and resources to prevent the spread and eradicate the root causes that lead to violence.”
The report included the following findings about the community-based public safety model:
- It has been operating in communities with intense violence for decades, remains under-resourced, and is frequently undermined by law enforcement.
- There are more than 200 initiatives operating cost effective, life-saving programs in dozens of cities throughout the U.S., including most major cities.
- The model has both evidence-based results and community support, demonstrating effectiveness at preventing violence. Its impact is felt and witnessed by the community and local law enforcement.
- Many organizations employing the model emerge as a response to personal trauma. They are very often founded, led and supported by people who have lost a loved one to violence, have caused harm themselves and wish to repent, or who simply cannot witness anymore loss of life in their communities.
- While the model may have originated as a do-it-yourself movement, and has numerous subtle modifications, the work long ago evolved into a profession that requires intensive and ongoing training.
The report also identified the following priorities to expand community-based public safety programs to scale:
- Increase Funding: Programs are substantially and significantly under-resourced, with funds rarely available for general operating expenses. This under-resourcing is a direct continuation of systemic racism in America, with the effort of people of color to help other people of color not being valued.
- Strengthen Organizational Infrastructure: While many practitioners have mastered the basics of organizational management, there is a tremendous need amongst organizations for capacity building.
- Educate Public Agencies: Law enforcement and other public agencies sometimes see these programs as a threat and will attack the concept and its practitioners. Education about this community-based approach is needed at all policy and practice levels, including but not limited to law enforcement.
- Provide Adequate Support for Professionals. Practitioners work long hours often for suboptimal pay in jobs that too often may be devoid of benefits. The nature of the work is traumatizing, and resources to support the trauma and re-traumatization experienced by them is limited at best. For many of the workers, it is frequently their first in the aboveground economy, whether due to previous incarceration or other reasons. These new professionals need both training and support services.
- Prioritize Data and Participatory Research. It is essential that all research about the programs be community-based participatory research (CBPR) so that research practices are properly vetted, organizations can be credited and compensated fairly for their data and research, and evaluation can create career paths for community-based public safety professionals beyond “street work.” Community safety workers are best able to collect field data inaccessible to non-indigenous researchers.
In addition to the mayors, CBPSA was joined for the launch by report co-authors and leading community-based public safety practitioners, Dr. Gary Slutkin of CURE Violence Global (CVG), Melvyn Hayward of Chicago CRED, Dr. Aquil Basheer of Professional Community Intervention Training Institute (PCITI), Julius Thibodeaux of Advance Peace (AP), and Fernando Rejon of Urban Peace Institute (UPI). They lead organizations that support, train and advise community-based public safety initiatives in dozens of cities across the country.
Gary Slutkin, MD, Founder and CEO of Cure Violence Global, said: “Even in the face of some remarkable successes, public health approaches to community safety have been greatly underfunded by government and philanthropy. Even philanthropy, with rare but glowing exceptions, remains still almost solely focused on justice reform rather than the complementary public health and community alternatives. These successful alternatives save lives in our communities, and save money for our cities, states and all of us. We’re long overdue to turn this corner.”
