Blue Light Safety Project

Another interesting effort about town this group is working on.

The Blue Light Safety Project is a Santa Cruz local community effort to provide temporary safe spaces for people who are feeling unsafe. Community members who want to provide a safe space to those in need simply put a blue light on their house. The project is an attempt to provide safety in our community outside of institutional solutions such as police.


You may see signs at houses around town:

Questions to ask yourself

Here are the discussion questions that we posed at the World Without Police BBQ and discussion. This was a remarkably simple event to hold, and generated inspiring discussion and great, actionable ideas.  And hopefully raised awareness of issues around police, and inspired some folks to action.

Things the Public Does Not Know

A discussion about the value of public relations, an acknowledgement of how rarely we have time for this important aspect of police obsolescence and finally a list of things we are pretty sure the general public has no idea are happening in this town came out of our weekly meeting.

World Without Police Brainstorm

Here is a list of ideas that came out of the great discussion at the World Without Police BBQ:

• Green porch lights - someone reported that in their town, people put up green lights on their porches to signal that their house is a safe space that people can come to when they need help

Feeling for the Edge of your Imagination: finding ways not to call the police (from Imagine Alternatives)

Dear friends, family, acquaintances and people with whom I share house party dance floors and supermarket lines,

A few weeks ago, an acquaintance of mine attended a police lineup,

Workgroup Notes - May 12, 2011

These notes came out of a small group meeting that was part of the larger Community Safety Workgroup from which this project is a spinoff.  It reflects the initial enthusiasm and energy that people brought to the idea of working to create a world without coercive authority, as well as positive solutions to frustrations with police misconduct, excessive force, and intimidation.