The Safety and Justice Challenge is a new five-year, $75 million investment by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to engage jurisdictions to develop and model effective ways to keep people out of jail, more effectively reintegrate those who must be confined into the community upon release, and help them stay out of jail thereafter.

As a strategic ally selected by the MacArthur Foundation, the IACP will support participating Challenge jurisdictions and law enforcement agencies throughout the country through a series of activities to identify and develop safe and effective law enforcement strategies for reducing arrests and incarceration. These activities will include:

• Holding a series of focus groups for line officers and command staff to explore alternatives to arrest while keeping communities safe;
• Establishing a working group to develop model officer evaluation criteria; and
• Promoting promising practices through a peer network for reform efforts.

A total of 20 Challenge Network jurisdictions were selected from a field of 191 interested jurisdictions. On April 13th, 2016, the MacArthur Foundation revealed their selection of the 11 jurisdictions that would receive Core Site funding:

Core Sites: Charleston County, SC Harris County, TX Lucas County, OH Milwaukee County, WI New Orleans, LA New York, NY Philadelphia, PA Pima County, AZ St. Louis County, MO Spokane County, WA State of Connecticut

Partner Sites: Ada County, ID Cook County, IL Los Angeles County, CA Mecklenburg County, NC Mesa County, CO Multnomah County, OR Palm Beach County, FL Pennington County, SD Shelby County, TN

The IACP looks forward to working with these jurisdictions throughout this project. For more information visit the IACP’s Safety and Justice Challenge web page.