Policing and Public Safety Initiative

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For 30 years, the Manhattan Institute has pioneered policing innovations—most notably the theory of "broken windows" as an element of a community policing strategy—that have improved both safety and quality of life across American cities. MI’s work on proactive policing has been widely credited as a driver of New York City’s dramatic crime reduction through the 1990s. The work of MI fellows such as Heather Mac Donald, Rafael Mangual, and the late George Kelling has championed order, police proactivity, and close partnerships between police and the communities they serve, and has provided public officials across the country with a blueprint for improving public safety.

MI's new initiative on policing and public safety focuses on pressing public safety and criminal justice issues—such as police use-of-force, incarceration, bail reform, and more—all with an eye toward the preservation, development, and application of ideas to improve urban safety and order. Encompassing data-driven research, essays, and event programming, the initiative is led by former NYPD senior intelligence analyst Hannah Meyers.

• The New Untouchables, Christopher F. Rufo
• America’s Shrinking Police Forces (podcast), Charles Fain Lehman
• Police Departments on the Brink, Charles Fain Lehman
• Crime and Policing in New York, Rafael Mangual
• A Grim—and Ignored—Body Count, Heather Mac Donald
• Learning From Breonna Taylor, Rafael Mangual
• A “Culture of Lawlessness” in D.A. Offices, Jason C. Johnson
• A Tale of Two Cities, Indeed, Rafael Mangual
• New York’s Department of Overcorrection, Rafael Mangual