For the second season of This Changes Everything, host Sara Bernard and reporter David Kroman consider this question as well, taking a close look at the challenges facing city leaders as they contemplate whether it’s possible to downsize the police force and create a new public safety regime.
Over the course of six episodes, all available now, Bernard and Kroman explore the history of reform in Seattle, delve into the data and personal stories fueling the call for new solutions, and consider the options and the obstacles facing city leaders.
Subscribe to This Changes Everything on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or Podbean.
Bernard and Kroman provide an overview of all the issues at play, but focus on two key topics. First, why and how services to the most vulnerable are at the center of police work today, and, second, how several new approaches to public safety aimed at reducing racial disparities in policing and officers’ use of force are starting to gain traction in the West.
They talk to the people providing these services, those being served, and the politicians and advocates debating what comes next. The result is a comprehensive, deeply reported survey of one of the most pressing issues of the moment, an essential listen for the curious and the committed alike.
Listen to the entire season now:
Episode 1: How reform gave way to ‘Defund the Police’ in Seattle
Episode 2: Seattle police, social workers and mental health crisis calls
Episode 3: When police response to a crisis call goes wrong
Episode 4: An Oregon city’s decades-old alternative to police
Episode 5: Defund, then what? Seattle activists’ ideas for police dollars
Episode 6: When defunding the police meets Seattle’s political reality
