Using Science to
Make
Freedom
systemic
Introducing Unlocking Safety
Current public safety systems in the United States and beyond deliver neither safety nor justice. Redesigning these systems calls for bolder action grounded in good science. To answer this call, we have always applied a practical scientific approach to our structure and methodologies. We have found that overtime our most effective workflows called for a realignment and unification under a new moniker. Our work prioritizes the need for a new identity that better aligns the visual representation, the natural progression of the organization and the work as it is conducted today. As such, the Center for Policing Equity is now Unlocking Safety. With this name change, our mission is refocused on reducing the harm caused by systemic racism, strengthening the connection between policy and progress,and collaborating with communities to secure Black liberation.
As Unlocking Safety, we continue to be a team of advocates, scientists, policy experts, community engagement specialists, and former law enforcement professionals measuring the impact of alternatives to policing and mapping pathways and creating tools to foster community-led public safety redesign efforts. Every Black person around the globe deserves to live free safely in public without the looming threat of institutional violence. Equity needs to be systemic. Safety needs to be systemic. As such, we are using science to make freedom systemic. Such a world benefits us all.
Our mission
Justice Navigators Assessments Completed
Public Roll outs Events have taken place
Data Gap Analyses Completed
Police Departments have utilized our partnerships and interventions
Our Founding Story
Our organization started when Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon, an award-winning psychologist and international leader in the science of racial bias, and Dr. Tracie L. Keesee, an internationally recognized human rights official, former police chief and veteran law enforcement officer, met at Stanford University’s Policing and Racial Bias Conference.
INITIAL SUCCESSES AT THE DENVER POLICE DEPARTMENT
Inspired by this initial success, Dr. Solomon and Dr. Keesee expanded their partnership to form a research and action center made up of advocates, data scientists, community organizers, former law enforcement, and policy experts eager to redesign public safety systems around the world. Since our founding, we have done the work by connecting with leaders who want to enact change in their communities and police departments and then developed the tools to make that change a reality. Together, using sound science and bold action, we can move the world toward Black liberation and freedom for all.
Our Leadership
“I spent 27 years as a police officer and recognize that the good services that policing provides are always overlooked by the systems that cause Black and Brown communities to experience intentional and unintentional social, economic, and physical harm. Unlocking Safety addresses these problems without vilifying the police or the community. Unlocking Safety’s mission aligns with my hopes to help police departments develop wholesome partnerships with their communities, and to change their policing models to promote being public servants, not warriors.”