A big announcement this week regarding a new first-of-its-kind association of community-based public safety and violence prevention programs. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti joined key leaders and organizations representing major U.S. cities on a Zoom chat to announce the formation of the Community Based Public Safety Association.
The goal is to connect efforts from across the country to help advance pathways to safety that complement policing and reform the criminal justice system at a national scale. Mayor Baraka says community-based public safety efforts in his city have made a difference.
To ignite its efforts, CBPSA released a national study –Redefining Public Safety in America: A National Scan of Community-based Public Safety Initiatives – that details the various programs, how they work to reduce violence, and what is needed to bring them to scale.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti praised Baraka’ efforts in Newark and says his community-based initiatives on the West Coast are also bringing down crime.
In addition to the mayors, CBPSA was joined for the launch by Aqeela Sherrills, Executive Director of Community Based Public Safety Association and Director of Newark Community Street Team, the
report co-authors and leading community-based public safety practitioners, Dr. Gary Slutkin of CURE Violence Global (CVG), Melvyn Hayward of Chicago CRED, Dr. Aquil Basheer of Professional Community Intervention Training Institute (PCITI), Julius Thibodeaux of Advance Peace (AP), and Fernando Rejon of Urban Peace Institute (UPI) and David Muhammad, Executive Director of National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform. They lead organizations that support, train and advise community-based public safety initiatives in dozens of cities across the country.
