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The CAPS Commission hosted a "Reimagining Safety" film screening and community panel discussion on February 24-25, 2024, in Bloomington to promote alternatives to traditional policing. The Commission, established in 2020 to amplify marginalized residents' voices on public safety, presented its Alternative Public Safety Report recommending the creation of a Department of Community Safety & Resilience focused on human-centered, non-coercive approaches. The events were sponsored by organizations including Indiana Recovery Alliance, Care Not Cages, and the Palestine Solidarity Committee at IU, with attendees encouraged to join the Bloomington Community Safety Coalition.
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On April 11, 2023, the Community Advisory on Public Safety (CAPS) Commission and the Alternative Public Safety Special Committee hosted a town hall in Bloomington, Indiana to gather community input on public safety needs and perceptions. The event was structured around introducing alternative public safety concepts, facilitating community discussion in breakout sessions, and presenting research findings that identified poverty as a key factor correlated with crime, homelessness, and violence. CAPS is developing recommendations for a community-led alternative public safety program based on principles of poverty decriminalization, human dignity, racial equity, harm reduction, and restorative justice, with a final report scheduled for delivery in June 2023.
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The Bloomington Open Government Roadmap, prepared in January 2024, identifies civic engagement challenges facing the city despite high resident favorability ratings and strong community pride. Key findings reveal low voter turnout (14% in recent mayoral elections versus 23% state average), limited public meeting attendance, and underutilized digital engagement channels, with social media followers remaining modest (14,000 on X, 13,000 on Facebook, 2,900 on Instagram) despite reaching 48,000 people annually. The report, based on research and community listening sessions, proposes building formal and informal channels for meaningful community input as a priority for the new mayoral administration to rebuild open and inclusive government.
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