Reimagining Public Safety with the Town of Chapel Hill
Background
On June 24, Chapel Hill Town Council adopted a Resolution on Developing New Community Approaches to Improve Racial Equity and Public Safety in Chapel Hill, NC. The Task Force was to draw on community perspectives, Town department insights, and data from Chapel Hill and other jurisdictions. It considered best practices, research, and innovative ideas for identifying approaches to ensure public safety for everyone. The mission of this Task Force was to bring forth concrete, actionable recommendations to the Town Council to achieve increased public safety, elimination of structural inequities in public safety systems.
Challenges
Questions around public safety are always complex, perhaps never more so than in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. And working with the Town of Chapel Hill to redefine public safety was no exception. Meeting public expectations at a particularly sensitive moment in time, navigating opposing views and definitions of public safety, and creating environments where constructive conversations could be had were all significant challenges in this contract.
What We Did
Civility Localized provided Community Listening Sessions, Task Force Facilitation, Online Survey and Developing Recommendations, all designed to increase equity and inclusion. We created safe spaces for meaningful conversation on incredibly difficult topics with much diversity of thought. We developed survey questions designed to elicit real, and meaningful responses from all communities, including those historically marginalized in conversations like these.
Media
