We support jurisdictions working to improve public safety and reduce harmful and costly interactions with the criminal justice system.
Overview
In many communities, government leaders are working to build safe neighborhoods by addressing crime, providing residents with the resources they need to thrive, and using public safety resources efficiently.
However, jurisdictions have traditionally relied on criminalization, policing, incarceration, and community supervision to address safety, and these approaches often fail to address the underlying social problems that contribute to system involvement. Instead, these approaches create harm to individuals and communities, perpetuating racial, ethnic, and wealth disparities and increasing costs without producing meaningful improvements in public safety.
We work closely with state and local jurisdictions ready to test and scale practices that prevent and interrupt harmful criminal justice system involvement by strengthening connections to community resources and alternative systems. We are currently testing the following approaches:
Developing resident-generated indicators of safety and well-being and using insights from these measures to improve resident outcomes.
Implementing and scaling alternative approaches to public safety that reduce harmful resident-system interactions, such as arrest, incarceration, and community supervision.
Creating new pathways for residents to access community-based services that address their underlying needs, such as mental health treatment or housing support.
With their external expertise of the field and dedicated staff time, the GPL has been paramount in assisting Chicago's multi-agency [alternative emergency response] effort in understanding where we needed support. They were able to combine both valuable new ideas and hands-on support to facilitate the expansion of our program.Carla Orlandini
Deputy Director, Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications
We help jurisdictions connect residents to the right services at the right time by developing and implementing programs that divert 911 calls to other responses, such as unarmed community responder teams and behavioral health professionals.
We work with judges and pretrial agencies to improve outcomes for individuals awaiting trial, reduce costly and unnecessary pretrial supervision conditions, and use pretrial staff resources more efficiently.
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Our Impact
We work closely with mayor’s offices, police departments, offices of neighborhood safety, 911 call centers, judges, pretrial agencies, and more to implement solutions that improve outcomes for residents.
With their external expertise of the field and dedicated staff time, the GPL has been paramount in assisting Chicago's multi-agency [alternative emergency response] effort in understanding where we needed support. They were able to combine both valuable new ideas and hands-on support to facilitate the expansion of our program.Carla Orlandini
