National Convening on Non-Police First Response Alternatives Draws Public Safety, Civil Rights Experts to Washington, D.C.

Government officials, academic experts, civil rights advocates, and alternative first response practitioners attended first-of-its-kind summit on building first response capacity outside of law enforcement.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 8, 2023

Media Contact: Joshua Manson, Policing Project at NYU School of Law, joshua.manson@nyu.edu

Media Contact: Merrie Leininger, Georgetown University Law Center, ml2171@georgetown.edu

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, public safety experts and practitioners from nearly 30 jurisdictions across the country convened in Washington, D.C. to discuss the growing movement to build non-police alternatives in emergency first response. Attendees included alternative responders, city officials, public health experts, police reform advocates, mental health advocates, members of law enforcement, public safety researchers, representatives from DOJ, and others.

Since George Floyd was killed just over three years ago, there has emerged a growing national consensus that armed police officers should not be the first responders to every 911 call. Activists, academics, and first responders alike increasingly agree that when law enforcement responds to an emergency that may not require a police response, there are real risks of violent confrontation. Even if there is no violence in the moment, the underlying issue giving rise to the 911 call often goes unaddressed.

Communities across the country have been tackling the issue of overreliance on law enforcement in their own ways, finding creative solutions to address community needs without police involvement. Although there have long been some alternatives to police response, the movement in this direction has taken off since 2020.

The convening, held on June 1 and 2 and co-hosted by the Policing Project at NYU Law School and Georgetown Law’s Center for Innovations in Community Safety, brought together emergency response experts from dozens of communities to learn, share ideas, and discuss the future of alternative first response in their communities and nationally. The event was hosted in partnership with public safety departments and alternative response programs in Albuquerque, NM; Atlanta, GA; Dayton, OH; Denver, CO; San Francisco, CA; and Tucson, AZ. It featured speakers from many of these communities and others, as well as researchers, impacted community members, and practitioners.

“This gathering confirmed what many doing this work know – this is a ground up, organic movement that is coming of age, and not a moment too soon,” said Barry Friedman, Faculty Director of the Policing Project at NYU Law, a co-host of the event. “We often hear it said that ‘people call the police,’ but really people call 911 for help and we send the police. Yet police themselves agree they are not trained or equipped to address many of the reasons people call 911 in the first place. Alternative response is designed to deal with this mismatch and get people the help they need. Polls show that every demographic in the United States supports the growth of this alternative response ecosystem.”

“The incredible growth of alternative first response programs nationwide makes it clear that the question is no longer if we should invest in these programs; it’s how to help them succeed in their efforts to provide more effective responses to calls for help,” said Tahir Duckett, Executive Director of Georgetown Law’s Center for Innovations in Community Safety. “This convening is a first step in making sure that these organizations start to get the long-term support that they need to become a central part of our public safety apparatus.”

The convening was held as part of the Policing Project’s Reimagining Public Safety initiative to support strong, healthy, and safe communities by ending an overreliance on law enforcement. The initiative was launched in five cities – Minneapolis, Denver, San Francisco, Tucson, and Chicago – where the Policing Project is conducting research about community safety concerns and is producing guidance for cities on alternative response and police alternatives that better address the actual reasons community members call 911.    

For more information on the initiative, visit SafetyReimagined.org.

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The Policing Project at NYU School of Law promotes public safety through transparency, equity, and democratic engagement. Learn about the Policing Project at www.policingproject.org.

The Center for Innovations in Community Safety at Georgetown Law uses individual interventions and systems-level change to transform and end overreliance on policing. Learn more at https://www.law.georgetown.edu/cics/.