ENSURING DIGNITY AS PUBLIC SAFETY

In his Distinguished Lecture for the Academy for Justice, Are Police the Key to Public Safety?: The Case of the Unhoused, Barry Friedman contends that America needs to rethink the meaning of "public safety." Guaranteeing public safety is arguably the most foundational responsibility of government. Yet a too narrow understanding of what public safety requires may be at the root of our country's overreliance on police to handle tasks for which they are ill suited. Through the lens of police interactions with the chronically homeless, Friedman suggests that a broader conception of public safety would include affirmatively providing for citizens and would better account for the safety trade-offs entailed in police deployments.