Community Capitals Policing merges food economy and public safety, repairing decades of harm

Abstract

First paragraphs: A local, circular food economy like the one we are building in Alameda County, California, will not only alleviate food insecurity, create jobs, and improve the environment, it is also a center­piece of our 15-year-long effort to strengthen social cohesion, repair trust, and improve public safety through a revolutionary new approach to policing. More than 15 years ago, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office launched a new brand of public safety, called Community Capitals Policing,[1] in Ashland and Cherryland, two unincorporated communities just south of Oakland, California. These communities have experienced dispropor­tionate levels of crime, poverty, disinvestment, disease, unemployment, and blight since the late 1970s. Our work, based on the community capitals framework (Fey, Bregendahl, & Flora, 2006), is taking a systems-level approach to repair the harm done to the community over decades of systemic racism and neglect. The work is informed by a seven-year project called Food Dignity, funded by a US$5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. . . . [1] See more about Community Capitals Policing at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q06HRbTTloOkztzVZfwBXIlFIbyT-Ccx/view

Keywords

• Community Capitals Policing
• Public Safety
• Circular Food Economy
• Community Capitals Framework
• Food Dignity
• Local Food Systems