Cities across the United States are increasingly experimenting with civilian-led approaches to public safety, particularly in places where communities have experienced harms from punitive policing. One prominent example is Urban Alchemy in San Francisco, which deploys trained civilian practitioners, many who have lived experience of incarceration, homelessness, or addiction, to serve as trusted presences in public spaces. These practitioners help de-escalate conflicts, connect people to services, and maintain a sense of safety through everyday interactions. Prior research suggests that these efforts can reduce crime in some locations, but their effectiveness varies across neighborhoods and intersections.

This project seeks to understand how and why these community-based safety models work. Rather than focusing only on crime outcomes, we are interested in the mechanisms that produce safer public spaces: how small interactions between practitioners and residents shape the social atmosphere of a place, how signals of care and order influence behavior, and how elements of the built environment interact with human presence. By combining field observations, community partnerships, and new forms of environmental sensing, we aim to develop a deeper understanding of how trust, everyday interactions, and urban conditions contribute to public safety. Ultimately, our goal is to generate insights that help strengthen civilian safety initiatives and inform policy conversations about non-police approaches to safety grounded in human connection and community trust.

Stanford faculty: Forrest Stuart (Sociology), Prof. Sarah Billington (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Stanford students: Daisy Yan, Alexandra Maria Fernandez
Urban Alchemy: Dr. Lisa De La Rue (Chief Education and Research Officer)