Police reform is reshaping public safety in communities around the world. This archive covers policy changes, accountability measures, and community-led initiatives that show what meaningful reform looks like in practice. Stories here focus on evidence, outcomes, and the people driving change.
Starting next year in Anchorage, Alaska, a new team of mental health first responders will replace police for emergency calls for someone with a mental health issue. The Mobile Crisis Team is funded by a new local alcohol tax and the team is trained to be dispatched to situations police do not have adequate training to address.
Thanks to a new pilot program, 911 calls in New York City that are evidently mental health-related will be taken care of by mental health and crisis workers instead of law enforcement. The move is the result of months of protests around the country over police brutality, sparked by the tragic death of George Floyd.
The law institutes a new statewide watchdog for police misconduct, bans “chokeholds” in most instances and puts limits on the ability of police departments to withhold officers’ disciplinary records. It also allows individual officers to be held financially liable in civil suits over their actions.
Colorado passed one of the most comprehensive police reform packages in the country, setting limits on police use of force and mandating data collection to make sure cops who are fired from one agency don’t get rehired by another.
The Louisville Metro Council has voted unanimously to ban no-knock warrants. The legislation was titled Breonna’s Law, in honor of Breonna Taylor whose death became one of the rallying points in protests against police violence.
Advocacy groups like the ACLU have long raised significant privacy concerns regarding facial recognition. Researchers like Joy Buolamwini, Timnit Gebru, and Deborah Raji have demonstrated that these technologies can come with built-in racial and gender biases.
“We committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe,” Council President Lisa Bender said.
National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell admitted the league was “wrong” for failing to listen to players who protested social injustice. Goodell said he wants players to continue to speak out through protesting, supported the Black Lives Matter movement, and offered his participation.
Tens of thousands of protesters have marched in the US for six consecutive nights over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer. Demonstrators now have gathered in London, Berlin and Auckland, among other cities, in solidarity with the US crowds.
California is changing the standards for when police can use lethal force under a law signed Monday that seeks to reduce officer-involved shootings.
