Subject: policing yourselves
This is interesting. Sorry if it is pay-to-access. (It's really worth getting a sub to the NYT...they have periodic deals to get it cheap, and you can even get their cooking newsletter, which has some neat recipes.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0...

Excerpts:
On a two-block stretch of Brownsville in April, the police stepped aside and let residents respond to 911 calls. It was a bold experiment that some believe could redefine law enforcement in New York City.

...

Several times a year, workers from Brownsville In Violence Out stand sentry on two blocks for five days. The police channel all 911 calls from that area to the civilians. Unless there is a major incident or a victim demands an arrest, officers, always in plainclothes, shadow the workers.

The civilians have no arrest powers. But they have persuaded people to turn in illegal guns, prevented shoplifting, kept a man from robbing a bodega and stopped a pregnant woman from hitting a boyfriend who had not bought a car seat and a stroller as he had promised.


A lot more. Not everyone is convinced, but a lot of people are saying they feel safer. They seem to defuse situations, and everyone just goes home.