Washington, D.C. — The Center for American Progress released a report and fact sheet detailing how cities across the country are successfully incorporating new public safety professionals into their existing public safety workforces. These new professionals bring a range of much-needed skills and expertise when addressing public safety issues and help reduce crime and improve public safety outcomes for all.
The report also serves as a guide for cities as they work to expand their public safety workforces. It documents how additional public safety response professionals complement the existing workforce of police, fire, emergency medical services, and 911 professionals, reducing the burden on traditional first responders and improving outcomes for communities.
Three key types of expanded professional roles already seeing success in cities across the country are highlighted in the report: community responders, community violence intervention professionals, and reporting and investigation professionals. These types of local government innovations free up police resources to focus on solving serious crimes, rather than relying on just the police as a default response for behavioral health, quality of life, and de-escalation that can prevent crime before it happens.
While cities face similar challenges, they are taking different approaches to meet the needs of their respective communities and residents. This report and fact sheet describe how cities are using data to design and implement new public safety roles; identifying key experiences, skills, and training needed to create a prepared workforce; building new city infrastructure and diverse funding streams to support the workforce; and engaging government and community stakeholders to ensure that the workforce can deliver on public safety outcomes.
The authors of this report highlight lessons from eight different jurisdictions that have already wrestled with these challenges. The report also highlights common questions jurisdictions seek to answer when they are working to expand their public safety workforces and provides examples of how cities are approaching these questions.
“True public safety requires deploying the proper responder to the right situation,” said CAP’s Criminal Justice Reform Senior Policy Analyst Allie Preston. “Police are vital for law enforcement and crime response, but they can’t be expected to be social workers, medics, and mediators all at once. By introducing new roles such as community responders and community violence intervention professionals, cities can improve the way they respond to the public’s concerns about crime and safety.”
Read the report: “Expanding the Public Safety Workforce: How Cities Can Create New Professional Roles in Public Safety Response” by Allie Preston, Rachael Eisenberg, and Kirby Gaherty
Read the Fact Sheet: “Fact Sheet: Expanding the Public Safety Workforce” by Allie Preston, Rachael Eisenberg, and Kirby Gaherty
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Rafael Medina at [email protected].