ProGov21 Policy Library

Saving Lives: Ten Essential Actions Cities Can Take to Reduce Violence Now

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2022

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Council on Criminal Justice

Policy Areas Public Safety

This report argues that city leaders should aim for a 10% annual reduction in homicides and non-fatal shootings by identifying key individuals and locations driving violence and creating comprehensive citywide engagement plans. Solutions must include place-based policing, investments...

Preventing and Mitigating Police-Involved Violence

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2017

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States

Source State Innovation Exchange

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance, Housing, Public Safety, Public Safety, Civil Rights

Alarming rates of police brutality and abuse of power persist across U.S. cities and states, with 987 people shot and killed by law enforcement officers in 2017 alone. Victims of police-involved violence are disproportionately people of color, and a quarter of victims struggle with...

2018 Providence Police Department Policy Requiring Electronic Recordings of Interrogations

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2018

Level City or Town

State(s) Rhode Island

Source Providence Police Department

Policy Areas Data & Technology, Public Safety

This policy requires all custodial interrogations of capital offense crimes to be electronically recorded at a place of detention that is under the control of the Providence Police Department. Its purpose is to ensure the constitutional rights of the interrogated suspects and to minimize...

Before the Bullet Hits the Body: Dismantling Predictive Policing in Los Angeles

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2018

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source Stop LAPD Spying Coalition

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Data & Technology

Predictive policing refers to a range of policing practices that claim to use pre-existing demographic, environmental, and historic crime data to predict future patterns of crime as well as projecting “where crime will occur,” and “who” will commit crime. This method of policing has...

Police Use of Force Policy Analysis

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2016

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Campaign Zero

Policy Areas Public Safety

This review examines the use of force policies of police departments in 91 of America’s 100 largest cities. Drawing from their findings, which show that police departments with stricter restrictions on use of force kill significantly fewer citizens, Campaign Zero proposes ten categories...

The Right to Know: How to Fulfill the Public’s Right of Access to Police Records

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2019

Level City or Town, County, State

State(s) California

Source American Civil Liberties Union of California

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance

Democracy depends on the public’s right to know what its government is doing so it can hold officials accountable. California voters recognized the fundamental importance of public access to documents by enshrining the right of access in the state constitution. But the right of access...

2013 New York City Local Law 1080 Prohibiting Officers from Engaging in Bias-Based Profiling

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2013

Level City or Town

State(s) New York

Source City of New York

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Public Safety

This local law prohibits law officers from engaging in biased-based profiling on the grounds of actual or perceived race, national origin, color, creed, age, alienage or citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or housing status. It establishes avenues for persons...

Tracking Body Camera Implementation

Type Fact Sheet or Infographic

Year 2015

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Campaign Zero

Policy Areas Public Safety, Data & Technology

Body cameras are rapidly becoming the norm in communities across the country. Campaign Zero reviewed available police department body camera policies from the largest 30 cities in America to determine whether this new technology is being implemented in ways that ensure accountability...

Mental Health and the Role of the States

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2015

Level State

State(s) All States

Source The Pew Charitable Trusts

Policy Areas Health, Housing, Public Safety, Children & Families, Education, Economic Justice, Civil Rights

Millions of Americans have one or more forms of mental illness. These conditions have wide-ranging health, economic, and social consequences. For example, mental illness is a major factor in homelessness and incarceration. And serious mental illness - defined as a mental, behavioral,...

Beyond Policing: Investing in Offices of Neighborhood Safety

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2020

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Center for American Progress

Policy Areas Public Safety

This report provides a road map for city governments to establish a civilian Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) that provides the infrastructure and resources necessary for successful community-based public safety efforts. This report details varying structures and systems in place...

Policing + Transit

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2020

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Transit Center

Policy Areas Public Safety, Transportation & Mobility

Many transit agencies apply an overly punitive approach to minor transgressions. For example, this report argues that current methods of fare enforcement are too harsh. Fare evasion should be decriminalized, and the penalties should be made proportional to the severity of offense....

Creating Traffic Safety

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2024

Level City or Town, County

State(s) -

Source Local Progress

Policy Areas Community Development, Public Spaces, Transportation & Mobility

Localities should pursue policies that improve traffic safety while decreasing the role of armed police officers in enforcing traffic violations. This policy memo outlines the shortcomings of current traffic safety approaches and highlights localities that have successfully improved...

2011 Chicago Ordinance 6503 Regulating Police Board Powers and Duties

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2011

Level City or Town

State(s) Illinois

Source Chicago City Council

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance, Public Safety

This ordinance sets term limits for the Chicago Police Board; no board member shall serve more than two consecutive five year terms. It also grants the board authority to make recommendations to the Superintendent of Police and the Chair of the City Council Committees on Public Safety...

Roadmap to Reform: Strengthening the Accountability Mechanisms of the San Francisco Police Department

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2003

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source American Civil Liberties Union of California

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Public Safety

This report addresses the broad problem of accountability within the San Francisco Police Department and outlines changes that can be made to build more effective systems of accountability. These changes include adopting stronger whistleblower protections, mandating compliance with...

2020 Seattle Ordinance 119803 Police Name Tags

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2020

Level City or Town

State(s) Washington

Source Seattle City Council

Policy Areas Public Safety

In 2000, the Seattle City Council passed legislation that requires police officers to wear unobscured name tags that display an officer’s first initial and last name. This ordinance amends the Seattle Municipal Code by prohibiting officers from using a mourning band to cover the serial...

The Perpetual Line-Up: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2016

Level City or Town, State, National

State(s) All States

Source Center on Privacy & Technology

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Public Safety, Data & Technology

Face recognition is the automated process of comparing two images of faces to determine whether they represent the same individual. Across the country, law enforcement performs face identification to identify individuals who refuse to identify themselves, compare mugshots against...

Transparency is Not Enough: A Framework for Building Campaign Strategy

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year -

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Community Justice Exchange

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Public Safety, Health

Activists, organizers, and reformers often demand transparency from the criminal legal system because of the harm the system inflicts behind closed doors—particularly upon Black and Brown, poor, LGBTQ, and immigrant communities. For organizers working to dismantle the criminal legal...

2020 Seattle Ordinance 119805 Banning Chemical Munitions

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2020

Level City or Town

State(s) Washington

Source Seattle City Council

Policy Areas Public Safety

This ordinance bans City departments from owning, purchasing, renting, or using crowd control weapons. “Crowd control weapons” consist of kinetic impact projectiles, chemical irritants, acoustic weapons, water cannons, or any device used to control crowds by causing pain or discomfort....

2019 San Francisco Ordinance 42-19 Prohibiting Police Departments from Joining the National Rifle Association

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2019

Level City or Town, County

State(s) California

Source City and County of San Francisco

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance

This ordinance prohibits the San Francisco Police Department from being a National Rifle Association (NRA) member or using public funds to pay for NRA membership fees. The ordinance aims to address the issue of gun violence and reduce the influence of the NRA on local law enforcement....

Reducing Officer-Involved Shootings in Fresno, CA

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2017

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source American Civil Liberties Union of California

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance, Public Safety

Police officers are authorized to use force in the line of duty to protect the public they serve. However, inappropriate use of this authority can erode trust between the police and the public and undermine the core mandate of the police to “protect and serve.” Between 2001 and 2016,...

Safety for All

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2021

Level City or Town

State(s) All States, California, Oregon

Source Transit Center

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Public Safety, Transportation & Mobility

Incidents of harassment, crime, and violence on or near mass transit compromise riders’ safety, degrade their experience, and reduce utilization. Historically, transit agencies have sought to use a police presence to create a sense of safety and security. While police help reduce...

Local Police Surveillance Technology

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year -

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Local Progress

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Data & Technology, Democracy & Governance, Public Safety

As the capabilities of surveillance technology develop, law enforcement's ability to surveil citizens' movement, communication, and ideas also advances. In order to protect citizens' safety, the Center for Popular Democracy and the ACLU launched the Community Control Over Police Surveillance...

Alternatives to Arrest for Young People

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2017

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source National League of Cities

Policy Areas Public Safety

Evidence shows that young people achieve better life outcomes and are less likely to commit future crimes when kept out of juvenile court and detention facilities. This brief highlights case studies in which cities have diverted youth away from the juvenile justice system through...

2020 Madison Ordinance 61431 Prohibiting Carotids and Neck Restraints

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2020

Level City or Town

State(s) Wisconsin

Source The Common Council of the City of Madison

Policy Areas Public Safety

This ordinance prohibits Madison Police Department employees from intentionally using carotid or neck restraints, more commonly known as chokeholds....

A Way Forward: Diverting People with Mental Illness from Inhumane and Expensive Jails into Community-Based Treatment that Works

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2014

Level County

State(s) All States, California

Source American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California

Policy Areas Health, Public Safety, Education, Economic Justice, Civil Rights

This report examines how Los Angeles County can reduce incarceration for individuals with mental illness by implementing diversion programs together with supportive housing and assertive community treatment (ACT) programs. These programs have been shown to reduce recidivism. This...

ProGov21 Policy Library

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