Join the Traffic Safety for All Coalition and the Policing Project at NYU School of Law as we build a community of practice to reassess and right-size the role of enforcement in traffic safety. Throughout this convening, we’ll identify opportunities to build evidence on innovative traffic enforcement efforts and elevate replicable policy and legislative reforms.

The Convening on Right-Sizing Traffic Enforcement will provide municipal leaders, researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders from both the road safety and criminal justice fields an opportunity to come together and engage deeply on promising practices. Topics of panels will include: decriminalizing non-safety stops, civilian traffic enforcement, balancing enforcement with preventative street safety measures, traffic-related technology, and more.

Join national leaders in Chicago for two days of panels and conversation focused on “Establishing Permanence”— ensuring that alternative response becomes a recognized profession and a durable part of public safety systems. These programs are no longer “alternative”, they are becoming integral components of the public safety and wellness infrastructure.

Historically, 911 systems dispatch police to all types of emergencies—mental health crises, wellness checks, disputes—regardless of whether police are the best-equipped responders. Alternative response programs take a different approach, sending unarmed professionals like clinicians, peer responders, or mediators to appropriate calls. These programs are growing rapidly, but the work still lacks the structure and visibility of a true field.

That’s why this convening matters. Just like doctors, lawyers, police officers, and every other profession, practitioners in this field need infrastructure: standards, support systems, and a strong network. They need a professional identity, and they need a regular space to connect, reflect, and grow together. And they need a name (ideally, without a transient descriptor like “alternative”) that reflects their permanence in the public safety ecosystem.