The New Public Safety

"The New Public Safety argues that, whether dealing with the unhoused, people with mental illness, or traffic stops, public safety can be enhanced if we replace the police with other types of first responders—but only if we ensure that those replacements do not turn into another version of the police. In this well-written book, Shawn Fields combines searing descriptions of how poorly we handle disarray on the streets with proof that we can do a much better job through sensible legal reforms designed to prevent past mistakes."—Christopher Slobogin, author of Rehabilitating Criminal Justice: Innovations in Policing, Adjudication and Sentencing

"Fields offers a crucial intervention in the debate over police reform. In this book, he closely examines constitutional law and existing reform efforts to show that without careful safeguards, well-meaning efforts to shift responsibilities away from the police could have troubling effects. His insights will be invaluable to anyone serious about designing alternatives to policing that avoid reinforcing the problems they are meant to solve."—Rachel Harmon, author of The Law of the Police