Community-Based Public Safety: How Localized Efforts Can Reduce Crime and Make Policing More Effective

By Alexi Jones

Introduction

Although crime rates are currently far lower in the U.S. than during their peak in the early 1990s, the electorate is becoming increasingly concerned about crime and public safety. Multiple high-profile mass shootings have brought renewed attention to public safety in the United States. The Uvalde, Texas, massacre, in particular, led to the first piece of federal gun control legislation in nearly 30 years, but that bill failed to address another urgent public safety issue that the shooting highlighted: the incompetence of U.S. police and lack of community support systems for reducing violence. High-profile examples of police incompetence present a unique opportunity to translate public outrage into tangible policy change.