Massachusetts 2035 · 06 / 10

Safety

You will feel safe at any hour and get help when you need it

The moonshot

Build a 24/7 Safety and Recovery Network

We will connect emergency dispatch, first responders, violence prevention, treatment, and recovery into a statewide network that works around the clock. Put the right help within reach in every community and work toward zero lives lost to violence or overdose.

The opportunity

A picture of 2035

A nurse walks home after a late shift. A shopkeeper closes without fear. A person in crisis reaches a trained responder, then a treatment team and a safe place to recover. Safety is something people experience, not just a statistic.

What we can build on

Police, fire, EMS, dispatchers, hospitals, courts, community organizations, and recovery providers already form a statewide foundation. The opportunity is to connect them around response, prevention, and recovery instead of making residents navigate the gaps.

The gap to close

A low statewide crime rate can conceal an unsafe block, delayed help, domestic violence, or repeated crises. A cleared encampment is not a recovery outcome. The goal must reach each neighborhood and include people whose safety is easiest to overlook.

The work starts here.

Top three key initiatives

Get the right help there faster

Modernize 911 with evaluated transcription, translation, and dispatch support while trained humans remain in charge. Start in Boston, Worcester, Springfield, and willing regional centers. Integrate appropriate medical, behavioral-health, fire, and police responses.

Target a 50% reduction in call-answer-to-dispatch time in pilots without sacrificing accuracy. Measure dispatch time separately from responder arrival, with results by geography and urgency. Build realistic rural coverage and backup communications into the plan.

A real place to recover, any time of day

Develop 24/7 triage and stabilization capacity near the communities with the greatest need, including the Newmarket area. Connect it to treatment, recovery support, housing, and employment. Evaluate potential campus sites openly with clinicians and neighbors.

Build clinical alternatives to correctional settings for people needing addiction care. Put continuity of medication, an appropriate discharge plan, and a named recovery contact into provider contracts. Judge success by health, stability, and sustained recovery, with adjustment for patient need.

Stop repeat violence and prevent the next victim

Focus investigative resources on serious and repeat violence, with evidence, due process, and victim support. Pair enforcement with community violence intervention, youth opportunities, domestic-violence services, and practical routes away from retaliation.

Clear court bottlenecks by filling vacancies and improving scheduling and case handling. Use diversion and treatment where appropriate. A safer Commonwealth requires both timely consequences for violence and effective help for people who can avoid a cycle of harm.

The supporting work

Make every route home feel safer

Improve lighting, crossings, maintenance, and safe late-night transportation around workplaces, schools, shops, and mobility hubs. Use resident reports and direct observation to identify places people avoid.

Make crisis support visible

Create Safe Stations at major transportation hubs and other accessible locations. Staff them with appropriate clinicians and recovery partners, with a reliable route to care instead of a list of phone numbers.

Put settlement funds to work

Publish opioid-settlement allocations, allowable uses, commitments, and spending. Help municipalities procure evidence-based services and evaluate outcomes. Set realistic deployment deadlines within governing agreements.

Use technology only where it earns trust

Independently evaluate gunshot sensors and other tools before continuing contracts. Publish accuracy and disparate impacts. An automated alert alone should not establish grounds for a police stop; keep access and retention tightly controlled.

Keep victims and returning residents in the plan

Fund survivor support, witness protection where needed, legal access, and reentry employment. Give young people routes into the education and jobs initiatives before a crisis determines their future.

The path to 2035

Proposed milestones. Expand against evidence, delivery, and public value.

2027
Measure the gaps and connect the response
Launch multilingual dispatch pilots and publish baseline response times. Inventory treatment capacity and settlement spending. Start neighborhood safety partnerships and plan expanded 24/7 stabilization access.
2029
Make help easier to reach
Expand only the dispatch tools that improve speed and accuracy. Open additional clinical capacity and strengthen discharge follow-through. Reduce court delays and report neighborhood-level violence and victimization trends.
2031
Show sustained improvement
Aim to halve pilot dispatch delays and materially reduce violence and overdose deaths from a fixed 2026 baseline. Extend Safe Stations and community prevention to high-need areas, with independent review of results.
2035
Be safe at any hour
Pursue the lowest rates of violent victimization and fatal overdose in the nation while moving toward zero lives lost. Publish residents' experience of safety alongside recorded crime, treatment access, and emergency response in every region.

Questions & answers

Is zero violence or overdose realistic?

It is the direction of the moonshot, not a claim that a government can guarantee zero harm. Set annual reductions from a fixed baseline, publish setbacks, and change interventions when they fail. Residents should know whether their own community is safer.

Does faster response mean more surveillance or coercion?

The plan measures effective help, not data collection or arrest volume. Keep human control, independent audits, privacy protections, and legal standards. Treatment capacity and voluntary engagement must be real; clinical or judicial decisions require the process applicable to each case.

How do we know the money buys safety?

Report all-in program costs beside outcomes, including repeat victimization, response times, treatment engagement, housing stability, and mortality. Do not reward providers for excluding difficult patients or credit every statewide change to a single program.

Show the results.

The public scorecard

These are the measures we would publish to judge progress.

Violent victimization and homicide
Fatal overdose
Dispatch and arrival times
Treatment access
Repeat harm
Court delays
Resident-reported safety by neighborhood