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.

Participants learned and worked together on the challenges presented in this new era of convergence by collectively pursuing three Summit tasks:

Learning about strategies that organizations, inside and outside of public safety, have used to successfully adapt to societal change and transform their organizations and workforce.
Co-developing strategies for adopting emergent technologies, cross-organization collaboration, and new operating models while balancing individual privacy, due process, and civil liberties.
Gaining leadership insights on transforming organizational designs and operating models to better engage stakeholders and communities and build public trust.
Drawing on best practices from four case studies, insights from participants and special sessions, the report synthesizes action steps that public safety leaders across the world can embrace.