Community Safety Leadership Academies

American cities are facing a safety crisis. In 2020, America saw the largest rise in murders in 50 years. At least 12 major U.S. cities set homicide records. This surge in gun violence has exacerbated pre-existing public safety gaps experienced by many communities of color. It has erased progress in reducing gun violence in some neighborhoods since it peaked in the 1990s.

Thirty years ago, the murder rates in Los Angeles and New York City were at their respective historic highs. But from then through the start of the pandemic, murders dropped by fully 80% in LA and 90% in NYC. Why are LA and NYC outliers compared to other large American cities? Part of the answer seems to be that NYC and LA professionalized their police forces with better management techniques, technology, and training, as well as by prioritizing developing community violence intervention (CVI) capacity within the nonprofit sector.

While closing this public safety and trust gap will take long-term, sustained investment in both police departments and communities, we believe that by providing better training to police and CVI leaders, we can see quick, measurable improvements in public safety and trust.

That’s why the University of Chicago Crime Lab launched the Community Safety Leadership Academies (CSLA). The CSLA will offer first-of-their-kind programs to train the next generation of policing and CVI leaders from across America and the world, rigorously evaluating the program to determine its effectiveness. This effort brings together data and behavioral science insights of top academics at one of the world’s leading research institutions and leading practitioners who have a demonstrated track record of real-world success. Housed at the University of Chicago, the Academies will run simultaneously and with complementary curricula, with a goal to be the most impactful and robustly evaluated public safety training ever offered in the United States.

The first cohort of the Policing Leadership Academy (PLA), which began in May 2023, includes 24 police commanders and captains from across the country and the world. The PLA builds on prior research from the Crime Lab, showing that changes in police department management can drive reductions in both violent crime rates and police use of force. The six-month curriculum provides hands-on training in data-driven management, violence reduction, and community trust. The program is being run as a randomized controlled trial and supported by extensive qualitative research to measure if the training intervention improves police departments and the communities they serve.

The Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy (CVILA) launched its first cohort in September 2023 and draws from violence intervention nonprofits and organizations across the US. The program is qualitatively evaluated and aims to professionalize the CVI field further.