The Movement for Black Lives has created an opening to radically rethink how American communities pursue public health, order, safety, and equity. The call to dismantle our nation’s endemic over-reliance on policing and the legal system has moved from the progressive edge to the center of public policy debates in many communities.

To meet this transformative moment, the flagship LEAD program in Seattle is now known as Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion/ Let Everyone Advance with Dignity, and we have developed a new option for LEAD operations that decenters law enforcement as gatekeepers to LEAD services (while retaining traditional LEAD for jurisdictions where that itself represents a meaningful paradigm shift).

In the coming months, we will be updating our website to reflect our latest work and to provide new resources in response to the real prospect of radical reductions in the scale and mission of American police departments. For now, please direct inquiries to info@leadbureau.org, which is also the source for information about Co-LEAD, an adaptation of the LEAD case management and response for the COVID crisis.

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