Safe Streets & Secure Neighborhoods

The men and women who serve our country as police officers deserve our full gratitude and respect. For decades, the work of our police forces is commendable in protecting families and keeping communities safe. However, local and federal governments alike have failed to make sufficient investments in creating a strong American social fabric.

Rather than solve our issues head-on, we’ve dispatched honorable men and women to address every tear in our community; whether it be addiction, mental health, homelessness, or poverty. Police officers are often asked to fill roles that they may not be equipped for, leading to a cycle of stress and anxiety – in fact, our policemen are more likely to die of suicide than in the line of duty.

We must reduce the use of excessive force, ensure greater police accountability, and strengthen the bonds of trust between communities and law enforcement. That means:

Supporting our police force, but rooting out problematic officers.
Implementing community-based policing.
Universal body cameras for police officers.
Mandating de-escalation training & work shift sleep requirements.
Prioritizing arrests without the use of lethal force.
Banning fatal choke holds.
Investing in state-of-the-art law enforcement training programs.
Strengthening trust between communities and law enforcement.
Doubling the funding of firefighters & other social services.
Hiring more and raising the pay of 911-call operators.
Providing mental health services to officers & operators.
Nationally classifying call dispatchers as first responders.

Criminal Justice Reform

When the United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but over 25 percent of the total prison population, and more Black and brown men in prisons than were enslaved in 1850 – and wasting nearly $300 billion each year on a system that doesn’t adequately correct criminals or make our everyday lives any safer – it is time we make deep, structural, and long-term investments to rebuild the communities decimated by crime, prevent the conditions that lead to arrest, rehabilitate those who have made mistakes, and usher in a new era of public safety. We ought to have a system that prevents crime, rather than merely punish it. We must:

Ban for-profit prisons and detention centers.
Restore the voting rights of non-violent former inmates who have already served their time.
Reform mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
Reduce the prison population via alternative detention such as house arrest, probation, restitution, and community service.
Ban minors from being sentenced to solitary confinement.
Stop racial profiling.
Prioritize treatment and rehabilitation for low-level offenses.
Adopt the Scandinavian prison philosophy for federal prisons: create an environment of humanity and not seclusion, because removing your freedom is enough of a punishment – Scandinavia has one of the lowest crime rates in the world.
Invest in programs to reintegrate prisoners within society.
Dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.
Wage a war on poverty.

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