L.A. Safe: Reclaiming Community Safety

Community safety

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Play and life itself are optimal, often only possible, amid the safety of one’s environment and person. Angelenos deserve to live in safe communities and be treated fairly by our government in doing so. The City of L.A.’s overreliance on the criminal legal system (police, prosecutors, and prisons) to advance community safety via a punitive lens maintains historic segregation that keeps crime out of whiter, wealthier neighborhoods while brutalizing and lowering quality of life factors (true markers of safety) in communities of color. They’re also subjected to more negatively biased treatment by law enforcement and incarceration than whites—despite not being more likely to engage in crime. For Black, Indigenous, and Latinx Angelenos, this causes intergenerational trauma, degraded health, fiscal extraction, dehumanization, and death—as LAPD’s budget and share of City spending grow due to local government’s funding and limited investment in Angelenos’ needs that drive long-term wellbeing.

We’ll launch a collaborative body to create the evidenced-based case and initial logistical roadmapping for L.A. to establish a Department of Community Safety (DCS) that will usher in a more comprehensive, effective model of community safety that coordinates, unifies, and streamlines safety-related City operations (e.g., behavioral health, supportive housing, and social services).
Catalyst California will convene a network of organizations (e.g., base-building, policy advocacy, research and data analysis, legal, faith-based, labor, and service providers) committed to a DCS driven by four core priorities: crime prevention, violence prevention, community safety workers, and survivor services—particularly in areas with high rates of crime and harms caused by the criminal legal system. Establishing a DCS is our lead priority, though we’ll further transform the trajectory of L.A.’s approach to safety by movement building and narrative reclamation. For example, crime prevention requires integrated supports for housing, income and food insecurity, employment, access to healthy built environments, youth development, and safe public transportation. All yield better long-term results than carceral tools that produce harm and induce recidivism.
Partners will power build by infusing local voice in proactive reclamation of the community safety narrative—storytelling, policy research, and data analysis—to redirect LA’s current approach and share compelling messages for holistic wellbeing.

2050: In L.A., play is life. LADCS’s 25th anniversary occurs in two years. Angelenos, especially those from historically marginalized populations, are thriving (as measured by key life indicators) from feeling and being truly safe. Establishing the central DCS broke ground for City and County agencies to coordinate and eventually open satellite “L.A. Safe” offices in several unincorporated, rural, and regional urban areas across the county. “L.A. Safe” is the social media-popularized catchphrase for comprehensive trauma-informed community safety that operates clear of the criminal legal system. Most crime and violence prevention are achieved through programs and services addressing individual autonomy and interpersonal harms. People call the DCS hotline for unarmed workers to de-escalate potential and unfolding crises and conflicts. If violence erupts, survivors access support services provided by “Safe L.A.” funding—the bulk originally redistributed from policing and sheriff budgets.

The City of L.A. establishes a Department of Community Safety in response to our coalition’s campaign, including the distinct and collaborative efforts of local communities, non-profit organizations, small businesses, social service entities, as well as City and County officials (elected and appointed). When the Department’s creation is announced, funding is secured for the first two to five years of operation, with a fiscal strategy for maintaining and eventually expanding the office, opening satellite sites down the line, and increasing the entity’s annual allotment—largely from the City and eventually, the County. Those conducing hiring and the employees themselves will utilize the research- and community voice-driven recommendations that the coalition drafts. The campaign narrative has expanded hearts, minds, and budgets in many or all of L.A. County’s 88 cities, as community safety is now synonymous with core life-factor drivers of personal and public safety, not law enforcement.

In addition to identifying, interviewing, and onboarding local CBOs, entities, and advocates to join the coalition, as a co-convenor, Urban Peace Institute (UPI) will be help in formulate our power-building approaches and broader agenda. They’ll co-spearhead the research gathering, data analysis, and communications support for narrative reclamation and redefining of community safety. UPI will also work with Catalyst California to troubleshoot anticipated and unexpected challenges. We’ll use our expertise in strategic concert to support, direct, and take guidance from partners on forming and executing our campaign. UPI will help us map out non-DCS-focused coalition priorities of community safety, criminal justice reform, budget advocacy, and engagement with government agencies.