Public safety should mean safety for everyone.
For too long, Black communities and other marginalized groups have experienced policing systems that cause harm instead of protection. Decades of commissions, reports, and promises have not been enough to prevent violence, misconduct, and over-incarceration.
We believe true safety comes from strong communities, not punishment alone.
Restorative justice is not about weakening safety. It is about strengthening it. It is about recognizing that communities thrive when accountability, healing, and opportunity replace fear and harm.
PICO California organizes to transform public safety systems so they protect dignity, reduce harm, and invest in restoration rather than incarceration.
What We’re Working Toward
WeWe are advancing policies that:
- Raise standards for police use of force and strengthen accountability
- End the cycle of officers with serious misconduct moving between departments
- Expand non-police responses to mental health crises, homelessness, and community emergencies
- Reduce incarceration and increase pathways for rehabilitation and reentry
- Redirect public investment toward schools, healthcare, housing, and community-based solutions
Public budgets reflect moral priorities. We organize to ensure those priorities align with community well-being.
What We’ve Helped Win
PICO California and our federations have helped position California at the forefront of restorative justice reform.
Police Accountability and Standards
We helped pass legislation creating a statewide decertification process for officers who commit serious misconduct, including excessive force and abuse. We supported reforms that increased transparency around investigations and strengthened limits on lethal force.
Reducing Incarceration
We helped pass Propositions 47 and 57, which reduced penalties for certain low-level offenses, expanded parole consideration, and invested state savings into education, prevention, and rehabilitation.
Community-Based Alternatives
We helped pass the CRISES Act, investing millions in community-based alternatives to police response for mental health crises, substance abuse, and intimate partner violence.
Local Victories Across the State
Our federations have secured meaningful reforms in cities and counties throughout California, from redirecting portions of police budgets toward community investment, to ending contracts that expand detention, to creating independent oversight boards.