Since the George Floyd uprising, discussion of how to shift public resources away from police budgets and toward human needs has been on the lips of millions. Few of those millions, however, are aware of what’s happened in Richmond, California.

Over the past year, the city has quietly implemented one of the most important police budget reallocations in the country. Richmond is leading the way on shifting public resources away from more and more policing and toward social programs that can achieve real public safety.

The landscape of Richmond crime posed a particular challenge for this work. Throughout the aughts, the FBI regularly ranked Richmond as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. Gun violence dominated public perception of the area. Marked reductions in homicide and overall crime rates were narrowly attributed to police chief Chris Magnus, who helmed Richmond Police Department (RPD) efforts at community relations. We are a city that has long understood itself to love and need a whole lot more of the police.