Public Safety & Policing
The 2015 Public Safety Summit
Leadership for a New Era
When & Where
April 24-26, 2015
Harvard University | Cambridge, MA

A Report, reflecting on and summarizing the sessions and insights that occured at this Summit, is now available for download.

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About the Summit

Overview

For public safety leaders around the world one fact is certain: While the basic mandate to maintain law and order remains the same, the environment in which this mandate must be carried out is changing dynamically. Fueling this massive shift are robust social, political, and economic pressures, ever more powerful technologies, and rapidly evolving threats to community safety.

It’s imperative in this new era of disruption that public safety leaders discover how to build capacity to meet these formidable changes and evolve operating models for the future, while preserving the legitimacy that society needs, and delivering the outcomes communities demand.

To move forward, leaders must adapt and transform organizations within four overarching areas:

  1. Complexity: The operating environment for public safety organizations is changing dynamically. Leaders must not only enhance their capability to engage with communities and stakeholders in preventive policing solutions, but also respond to evolving and real-time threats such as cybercrime, civil unrest, and domestic terrorism.
  2. Convergence: The fusion of digital surveillance, data-rich networks, and social technologies creates new opportunities for intelligence-led policing. To build community trust in the public value these technologies promise, leaders must harness this new opportunity while carefully balancing individual liberties and protecting civil rights.
  3. Capacity: Public safety organizations remain under unrelenting pressure to do more with less. Leaders are moving to new operating models and organizational structures to improve efficient use of resources, while simultaneously reforming policy and policing strategies to achieve more effective outcomes.
  4. Culture: As societal expectations of public safety change, the requisite shift in policing methods can be jolting to the identity and culture of the organization. Leaders must not only reshape their organization’s mission, but also help stakeholders and employees understand and embrace new ways of working, roles, and identities.

These challenges lead to tough questions: How should leaders deal with seemingly conflicting demands? Which new strategies are proving to be best practice? How can leaders empower their personnel and pace the adaptation of their organization? What does the public safety organization of the future look like? What outcomes will underpin its mission, and define its success?

To help public safety leaders address these questions and set a vision for the future, Leadership for a Networked World and the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, in collaboration with Accenture, are convening The 2015 Public Safety Summit: Outcomes for a New Era, to be held April 24 – 26 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Participants will work together on these challenges by collectively pursuing three Summit tasks:

Identify strategies that organizations, inside and outside of public safety, have used to successfully adapt to societal change.
Share strategies for adopting emergent technologies and new operating models while balancing individual privacy, due process, and civil liberties.
Gain leadership insights on transforming your organizational design and culture to improve performance, engage stakeholders, and build public trust.
This Summit builds on a decade of research by Harvard Kennedy School’s program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management and will feature fresh case studies, peer-based problem-solving sessions, and topical workshops with Harvard faculty and researchers. Participants will leave the Summit poised to lead their organizations into the newest era of public safety.

Who Should Attend?

Summit participants are senior-level public safety executives (Chief, Commissioner, Executive Director, Secretary, etc.) in function, as well as “Chief Transformation Officers” in practice, who seek to improve organizational performance in the near term and redesign public safety for the long term.

Admission & Participation

The Summit is an invitation-only program for senior-most officials in public safety. Other applicants will be reviewed and accepted on a case-by-case basis, and according in part to space availability. This event is supported by the hosting and collaborating organizations, so there is no tuition or fee to attend. Travel and hotel arrangements, and related expenses, are the responsibility of individual participants.* - See more at: http://lnwprogram.org/safety2015#sthash.Zc3aY2FR.dpuf

Previous Reports

Leadership in Turbulent Times: A Report from 2018 Public Safety Summit

Go to Report

As the pace and power of social, political, and technological change accelerate in the world, citizens and stakeholders expect everything to happen faster – including the transformation of public safety and policing organizations.

This pace of change also creates a turbulent environment in which policing leaders have to manage the “political economy” surrounding them – including the competing demands of stakeholder groups, the need for delivering innovative new policing models, and the mandate to improve public trust and safety.

At The 2018 Public Safety Summit: Leadership in Turbulent Times, convened by Leadership for a Networked World and the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard in collaboration with Mark43, public safety leaders showed how they have been able to improve operationally, learn valuable lessons about their communities, and begin to chart a pathway forward for modern policing.

The Dynamics of Culture and Capacity: A Report from 2017 Public Safety Summit

Go to Report

Amidst a turbulent environment, innovative public safety leaders are moving forward to achieve dramatic new levels of capacity and public value. Right now, for example, visionary police chiefs are redesigning use-of-force policy and training to improve crime response and build community trust. Cutting-edge public safety organizations are using social networks, data, and analytics to understand crime patterns and respond proactively to community needs. And inventive policing leaders are collaborating across agencies, jurisdictions, and sectors to co-create solutions to community challenges.

Yet for even the savviest leaders, often the most challenging roadblock on their transformation journey is organizational resistance to change. How do leaders in public safety address this challenge? Skillful leaders realize that driving innovation and change requires not only redesigning organizational structures, systems, processes, and human capital, but also harmonizing organizational culture with new ways of working, collaborating, and producing public value.

To help public safety leaders work through the day's challenging questions, Leadership for a Networked World and the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, in partnership with Mark43, convened The 2017 Public Safety Summit: The Dynamics of Culture and Capacity from April 21 – 23 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This third annual Summit brought together innovative public safety, justice, and human services leaders, along with leading academics and industry experts, to learn and share ideas on how police chiefs, sheriffs, commissioners, and other officials can not only respond to broadening responsibilities more efficiently and effectively, but also transform their organizations, partnerships, operating models, and cultures to deliver improved policing outcomes and legitimacy.

Growing Capacity and Legitimacy: A Report from 2016 Public Safety Summit

Go to Report

For public safety leaders around the world, one thing is clear: while the basic mandate of maintaining law and order remains the same, the environment in which this mandate must be delivered is changing dynamically. Fueling this turbulent environment are powerful changes in public sentiment, demographics and social issues, pervasive and invasive technologies, and complex threats to community safety.

What’s imperative now is that public safety leaders gain an understanding of how to create newfound capacity for the future, outcomes and value that communities want, and the legitimacy that society demands.

To help public safety leaders address these questions and develop a vision for the future of public safety, Leadership for a Networked World and the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, in collaboration with Accenture, convened The 2015 Public Safety Summit: Leadership for a New Era at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Leadership for a New Era: A Report from 2015 Public Safety Summit

Go to Report

For public safety leaders around the world, one thing is clear: while the basic mandate of maintaining law and order remains the same, the environment in which this mandate must be delivered is changing dynamically. Fueling this turbulent environment are powerful changes in public sentiment, demographics and social issues, pervasive and invasive technologies, and complex threats to community safety.

What’s imperative now is that public safety leaders gain an understanding of how to create newfound capacity for the future, outcomes and value that communities want, and the legitimacy that society demands.

To help public safety leaders address these questions and develop a vision for the future of public safety, Leadership for a Networked World and the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, in collaboration with Accenture, convened The 2015 Public Safety Summit: Leadership for a New Era at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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