The term future policing represents a mindset that embraces the adoption of sustainable foresight, innovation and community relationships in policing. It is aimed at helping practitioners, policymakers and community members create a more effective, anticipatory and rightful model of policing. Future policing blends together a wide breadth of disciplines that focus on trust and confidence in the police, organizational and leadership development, evidence based policing, and the impact of technology, politics, social change and climate change on policing. It is a anticipatory approach to public safety that emphasizes an understanding of the issues most likely to impact policing. in the coming years. Armed with this understanding, the trinity of cops, politicians and community members can take steps to advance those things which help create a desired future for public safety.

By developing foresight, sustainable innovation and inclusionary practices, policing can determine its rightful future - one that is effective and responsive, protective and collaborative, transparent and accountable and empathetic and just. Our mantra that policing is “rightful” when it is effective, empathetic and just is the fundamental underpinning of the Future Policing Institute’s work.

The balance of policing will be experienced in the future. Until someone invents a time machine, we’re not going backwards. Focusing on tomorrow, not yesterday, and what we want public safety to look like in the near future, is fundamental to achieving the desired state of rightful policing.

Future policing’s emphasis on policing in the future notwithstanding, a recognition of policing’s history is crucial in developing future public safety models. Without it, we are at-risk of repeating the some of most horrendous periods in American policing. Creating a forward-leaning, anticipatory approach to policing, within the framework of learning from past experiences, means the travesties of past policing practices can be avoided. It also means the lessons of the past inform the future of policing and helping cops, elected officials and community members find the true purpose of policing.