Policing
Vera’s Policing Program is dedicated to fundamentally shifting the culture of policing from one that incentivizes and defaults to enforcement, to one that delivers and rewards public safety through community engagement and satisfaction. American policing’s overreliance on punitive enforcement, especially for minor transgressions, has resulted in a recurring adversarial dynamic that fans the flames of deeply rooted acrimony toward police in communities already experiencing enduring problems of poverty, high crime rates, and limited access to social services. This dynamic is especially pronounced in communities of color, which experience far greater levels of enforcement. Additionally, damaged police-community relations make it more difficult for police to execute their most critical responsibility: to respond to violent crime and protect public safety. In those communities where distrust in police is high, people are less likely to report a crime or offer witness testimony, which impedes effective policing.
Ruptured and spoiled relations between police and many of the communities they serve—particularly communities of color—are among some of the greatest challenges facing contemporary American society. We must bridge this gulf. Through developing new data-driven tools, assisting local governments and community leaders with policy development, and conducting research, we aim to provide alternatives to punitive enforcement and to enhance community-police collaborative problem-solving.
Featured
Arrest Trends
Interactive data tool on policing trends at the national and local levels
Every Three Seconds
Unlocking Police Data on Arrests
The launch of Arrest Trends marks Vera’s most recent effort to reduce the criminal justice system’s footprint—by unlocking key policing data and, in doing so, elevating the narrative of overreliance on arrests and the need for viable alternatives. In this report, readers will find information about the need for greater access to policing data, an o...
Gatekeepers
The Role of Police in Ending Mass Incarceration
Police in America arrest millions of people each year, and the likelihood that arrest will lead to jail incarceration has increased steadily. Ending mass incarceration and repairing its extensive collateral consequences thus must begin by focusing on the front end of the system: police work. Recognizing the roughly 18,000 police agencies around the...
Related Work
The Arrest-Jail Admission Gap
Jail admission rates surpass arrest rates in small and rural counties
But why does this jail-arrest gap exist? First, it is important to acknowledge that differences in counties’ data collection, data sources, and documentation could have contributed to the gap. Federal statistics have some data gaps—not all arrests are reported in FBI statistics, and some jail admissions are missing in states that have city level pr...
Blog Post
Abdul Rad
Wenshu (Monica) Yang
Examining Organizational Change and Procedural Justice
An International Cross-Site Evaluation of Two Police Departments
Recent attempts at police reform have embraced theories of procedural or organizational justice. Organizational justice is the notion that how employees view their employers—as well as employees’ positions in the organization—will affect the way people behave in work-related contexts. In this way, if police employees view their organization as trea...
Project
Jim Parsons
The 911 Call Processing System
A Review of the Literature as it Relates to Policing
Police spend an inordinate amount of time responding to 911 calls for service. While most of these calls are unrelated to crimes in progress, police often respond with the tool that is most familiar and expedient to them: enforcement. This exhausts police resources and exposes countless people to avoidable criminal justice system contacts. There i...
Serving Safely
Fact Sheet on the National Initiative to Enhance Policing for Persons with Mental Illnesses and Developmental Disabilities
People living with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities are disproportionately represented in contacts with the police, and these interactions can lead to stress and dangerous conditions for everyone involved. Law enforcement agencies can now request the tools they need to serve safely and effectively.
Arrest Trends
Data Tool Demonstration Video
The Vera Institute of Justice has created an interactive data tool for unlocking decades of police data on arrests at the national and local levels. In this video, Vera's Policing Program Director, Rebecca Neusteter, introduces the Arrest Trends data tool and its basic features.
Arrest Trends: Data Sources and Methodology
This report provides detailed information on why and how the Arrest Trends tool was developed, including data sources and methodology, available year ranges and geographic levels, differences between reported and estimated data, and offense definitions. Read the report to learn more, and explore the interactive Arrest Trends tool at http://arresttr...
Embracing Human Dignity
Annual Report 2018
The Vera Institute of Justice is working to radically transform incarceration in America by replacing punishing practices with an approach that prioritizes compassion, true accountability, healing, restoration, opportunity, and hope. Learn more about our commitment to human dignity in our annual report 2018.
Why a Michigan Law Enforcement Agency Employs Formerly Incarcerated People to Bridge the Police-Community Divide
A key goal of the Policing Program at Vera is to elevate innovative approaches to policing that employ alternatives to enforcement. The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) in Michigan is doing just that in its community outreach program employing formerly incarcerated people, which isspearheaded by Sheriff Jerry L. Clayton and Derrick Jackson...
Blog Post
Rebecca Neusteter
Megan O'Toole
Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office Case Study
Sheriff’s Office Hires Formerly Incarcerated Community Members to Promote Alternatives to Enforcement
Since 2009, the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) in Michigan has been successfully implementing an innovative community outreach program that employs formerly incarcerated individuals as outreach workers (OWs). OWs assist with proactive policing strategies such as referring community members to resources, applying system expertise to help i...
The Model Police Officer
Recruitment, Training, and Community Engagement
This report—jointly published by the International City/ County Management Association (ICMA) and the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera)—presents research conducted by ICMA on the views of police departments and communities regarding police officer recruitment, training, and community engagement. The survey targeted communities of varying sizes and r...
What Makes a Model Police Officer?
American policing is experiencing a crisis of confidence, in part due to lacking and disparate professional policing standards. It is essential that criteria used to recruit and retain police officials consider the values and priorities of the communities these individuals serve. To bride this gap, Vera partnered with the International City/County ...
Project
Rebecca Neusteter
Understanding Police Enforcement
A 911 Data Analysis
Police officers dedicate most of their time to responding to 911 calls. Contrary to what many may believe, however, the majority of these calls are unrelated to crimes in progress, and officers need a wide range of resources—including clearly communicated and detailed upfront information, as well as training on alternatives to traditional enforceme...
Project
Rebecca Neusteter