What would happen if policing disappeared? Would we be safe? This book imagines a world without police.

Imagine a world where people don't have to worry about being killed by the police. Imagine instead of armed officers there are community groups who know you and your family and who work to protect you. Imagine these local organizers working alongside hospitals and other institutions to stop cycles of violence and retaliation in your city. This is a world where stopgap, temporary fixes for violence and harm are no more. A world where we're truly safe.

Distinguished scholar and writer Philip V. McHarris takes us on a far-reaching quest into a world without the current policing system. Originally from the Bronx and spending much of his formative years in Newark, New Jersey, McHarris offers a fresh route on crucial strategies that we can adopt to address safety. In a penetrating narrative, he traces the arc of policing in the United States, from its origins in slave patrols and labor control through its massive expansion in the 1900s and the epidemic of police violence today. In exposing a flawed system, he argues that body cameras, de-escalation training, diversity among police, and other popular reform tactics will never stop police violence. And the high emphasis on punishment in the United States has left many people feeling unsafe.

In this thought experiment, McHarris takes us on a journey into a future beyond police. The book is a deeply researched portrait of how we'd function as a police-free society, using an array of grassroots organizing examples and how these groups work as new models of accountability when someone has been wronged or hurt by another. He points us toward a future beyond the standstill of recurring debates around policing, outlining strategies for responding to conflict and harm in ways that will transform our society.

Forward thinking and steeped in evidence, Beyond Policing arms us with a clear vision for a brighter, safer world and a deeper understanding of what we all can do to bring that world to life.