Serious About Safety
WHY DO WE NEED TO BE SERIOUS ABOUT SAFETY?
People in the United States want safety and justice—not a false choice between the two. We can and deserve to have both. Serious About Safety is a policy and communications campaign to advance a proactive approach to public safety—one that combines effective, accountable policing with investments that prevent violence, respond to crises, and address the conditions that make communities less safe. The campaign is in partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus.
OUR APPROACH
- Shape the public safety conversation
Help leaders communicate a strong, proactive vision for safety and respond to fear-based narratives about crime. - Advance smart policy
Champion policies that strengthen accountable policing, address mental health and substance use, reduce gun violence, improve neighborhoods, and create a fairer, more accountable justice system. - Elevate what works
Highlight elected leaders and communities achieving results through violence prevention, crisis response, youth engagement, treatment, and other proven strategies.
PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES WANT SAFETY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND JUSTICE
They support effective policing—but increasingly recognize that police cannot solve every social problem. People want the right responder to the right call, along with investments in mental health, addiction treatment, housing, jobs, youth engagements, and community-based violence prevention.
When asked to choose between a “serious-about-safety” approach that favors investments in good schools, jobs, housing, and treatment to prevent crime and get illegal guns off the street, and a “tough-on-crime” approach featuring longer sentences, stricter bail laws, and more policing, voters nationwide choose a “serious” approach over “tough” by almost 20 points.
EVEN IN MORE MODERATE JURISDICTIONS, A SERIOUS APPROACH BEATS TOUGH
LOCAL LEADERS ARE DELIVERING RESULTS
Mayors in cities including Baltimore, Birmingham, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, and many others are demonstrating that communities can become safer through a comprehensive approach that combines effective policing with prevention, community investment, and violence intervention.
Baltimore offers a powerful example. Mayor Brandon M. Scott brought law enforcement and community organizations together to focus on the people and places most likely to experience violence—all while investing in public health, neighborhood revitalization, opportunity, and safer communities.
In Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka has championed a community-centered approach to public safety, investing in housing, youth engagement, education, recreation, and trauma recovery while treating violence prevention as a public health priority.
As Mayor Baraka puts it, the goal is “putting the ‘public’ back into public safety.”
THE GOAL
Our goal is safer communities, more accountable government, and public policy that prevents harm rather than simply reacting to it.
Serious About Safety means investing in what works.
