Ben Appleton is a Government Innovation Fellow at the GPL, where he works on diversions and alternatives to the criminal justice system. He is currently working to support Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Alexandria introduce, embed and scale Alternative 9-1-1 Emergency Response initiatives. This work seeks to improve outcomes for residents by diverting 9-1-1 calls to unarmed trained professionals equipped to deescalate crises and connect residents to community-based resources.

Prior to joining the GPL, Ben was a Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor for the UK Government, where he worked in a range of social and economic policy roles, including policy interventions to address Covid-19 and cost-of-living challenges. He also previously worked at Deloitte as a consulting analyst. He studied public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School as the 2017-18 Choate Fellow and holds a BA in History from the University of Cambridge with highest honors.