8
Min read
The PolicySphere Briefing is brought to you by Baron Public Affairs
Baron Public Affairs and PolicySphere have cooperated on a series of articles on the upcoming EU directive CS3D:
"Understanding CS3D: The New EU Law That Could Cost U.S. Industry Trillions"
"CS3D Is Just One Way In Which Europe Exploits American Economic Vitality"
—
DON'T MISS: Opinion: If We Don't Change Our Regulatory System, We Won't Be Able To Produce The Energy The AI Revolution Needs — New guest article by Josiah Neeley of R Street Institute
Can Civilians Replace Cops? (Spoiler Alert: No)
No, you're not dreaming, it's not 2020. Yes, we are talking about abolishing the police again. Thank Mr Future of the Democratic Party, Zohran Mamdani. (And yes, it's a national policy issue, because he is the future of the Democratic Party.)
While he has publicly recanted his previous explicit embrace of "defund," his official policy agenda still provides for a "Department of Community Safety" which would, in the words of the great Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute, the greatest crime and public safety expert in America today, who wrote an excellent report about this for City Journal, "shift many responsibilities currently allocated to the NYPD into the hands of civilians." This is not some niche proposal; pressed about it during his last debate, he defended the proposition that civilians should respond to certain 911 emergency calls.
As Lehman's analysis makes clear, we don't have to guess as to what such programs do, since, in the aftermath of George Floyd's death, many municipalities around the country implemented them.
Over 100 cities implemented alternative crisis response models, believe it or not, generating a dataset ripe for systematic evaluation. Lehman had the unenviable task of synthesizing three experimental studies, alongside non-experimental evaluations.
Here are the basic takeaways.
First, civilian responders handle approximately 10% of emergency calls, focusing primarily on low-acuity situations: welfare checks, mental health crises, intoxication cases, and homeless outreach. Second, these interventions substantially reduce arrests for petty offenses, primarily by offering voluntary alternatives to involuntary detention. Third, and critically, civilian response programs demonstrate no significant effect on overall crime rates or police use of force.
This…doesn't sound so bad?
However, Lehman points out, "over a certain threshold, alternative responders get less useful." Initial implementation generates substantial effects—increased civilian responses, reduced arrests—but additional capacity produces minimal incremental benefit. Many calls that civilian responders handle would otherwise go unresponded, raising questions about their baseline urgency. Further, "consistent with this, alternative responders don't reduce use of force."
His admirably balanced conclusion merits quoting in full: "If we were to tell a story that combines all these data points, it would go something like this: It is possible for civilians to pick up some fraction of 911 calls—generously, around 10 percent—without major incident. These are the least challenging calls, so it takes the burden off of cops to handle them. And people are less likely to get arrested from these calls, which is good insofar as arrest and jail time can be harmful. At the same time, because they’re taking the least challenging calls, there’s an upper bound on how useful alternative responders can be—they can transport the homeless and do wellness checks, but they’re not going to get into serious situations."
Policy News You Need To Know
The PolicySphere Briefing is brought to you by Baron Public Affairs
Baron Public Affairs and PolicySphere have cooperated on a series of articles on the upcoming EU directive CS3D:
"Understanding CS3D: The New EU Law That Could Cost U.S. Industry Trillions"
"CS3D Is Just One Way In Which Europe Exploits American Economic Vitality"
#RareEarths #Chyna #AmericanDynamism — If you talk to rare earths experts, they will say that China has built up process expertise over decades in not only mining those minerals but refining them into industrial uses, and that this expertise will be extremely difficult for America to replicate. But what if good ol' fashioned American innovation allowed us to leapfrog the Chinese? This is happening, argues geopolitical analyst Tanvi Ratna. Innovations like Ucore Rare Metals' "RapidSX system", which has already processed over 4,000 tons of feedstock under a $22.4 million Department of War grant, are set to power a new Louisiana plant operational by 2026, scaling up to handle thousands of tons annually. Complementing this, membrane separation techniques from UT Austin and protein-based binders from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory promise to replace solvent extraction methods, potentially compressing development timelines by up to 20 years. If these new techs pan out, it could be, in the trite expression, a game changer.
#Nukes — The Trump administration has announced what could be a transformative strategic partnership with Westinghouse Electric Company, Brookfield Asset Management, and Cameco Corporation to deploy at least $80 billion in advanced nuclear reactor infrastructure across the US, pursuant to the President's pro-nuclear executive orders. The partnership structure incorporates novel profit-sharing mechanisms that include public participation once specified thresholds are met.
#FreeSpeech — X has launched Grokipedia.com, its AI-written alternative to Wikipedia, which has had dramatic problems of left-wing bias. Sorely needed.
#Energy — Useful research from the Institute for Energy Research. Energy prices are rising, and of course Democrats are blaming the administration. They argue, however, that residential electricity prices increased 25% during the Biden administration and are continuing to rise due to structural policy lag effects. The report identifies several overlooked system-wide costs associated with intermittent renewable energy sources, such as backup power requirements, increased transmission infrastructure, and reduced capacity utilization of conventional generators. Worryingly, they cite MIT professor Christopher Knittel to the effect that Trump administration policy effects won't materialize until after the midterm elections.
#AI #MentalEalf — Yesterday, we highlighted a report that hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users may be experiencing some form of mental health trouble on the platform. So it's only fair that we now highlight this opinion piece by Taylor Barkley, Director of Public Policy at the Abundance Institute, arguing that AI tools can be good for mental health. Drawing on his own personal experience with AI therapy platforms, Barkley argues that they can indeed be helpful, and argues against regulating too quickly (we certainly argue with that last part).
#AI — The good folks at RAND have had the clever idea of doing a poll of Americans on their views of the US-China AI race. 72% percent of Americans rate US leadership in AI development as highly important, with 37% considering it absolutely critical to national interest. Interestingly, the research reveals that increased familiarity with AI applications correlates with stronger support for American leadership, suggesting that public support may intensify even further as these technologies become more widespread. However, the study also identifies a significant behavioral paradox: despite widespread concern about Chinese technological competition, Americans demonstrate substantial appetite for Chinese AI products, with DeepSeek becoming the most downloaded app following its January 2025 release and one-third of adults actively using TikTok despite national security concerns. This disconnect between stated preferences and consumer behavior suggests that while the administration's competitive framing resonates with the electorate, that same electorate is not willing to pay much of a cost to reach that goal. (As is often the case…)
#Healthcare #MentalEalf — Very interesting observation from Randall Bock of the Brownstone Institute: "ACA subsidies alone amount to only about half of what the nation would save if we returned to pre-1990 levels of mental health insurance coverage." he notes that the law mandates that insurers cover mental and substance-use disorders as they do heart disease or diabetes, a concept known as Mental Health Parity, and that this might have a little something to do with the dramatic rise in reported mental health problems. We believe the mental health decline is real (just go out and talk to people), but it is also definitely linked, in part, to the increase in what we would call therapy culture, which itself is probably linked, in part, to financial incentives. A good addition to the public debate.
#Telecoms — In an opinion piece, Bartlett Cleland, executive director of the Innovation Economy Alliance, argues that protecting the 6 GHz spectrum band represents a critical national priority for maintaining US technological competitiveness. Just in case you're a peasant who doesn't know, he 6 GHz spectrum band refers to electromagnetic frequencies between 5.925 and 7.125 GHz that the FCC opened for unlicensed use in 2020, significantly expanding available bandwidth for Wi-Fi networks. This spectrum allocation enables faster wireless data transmission, reduced network congestion, and supports advanced applications requiring high-capacity connectivity, including the Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 standards that power modern devices, smart home technology, and emerging applications in virtual reality and AI-driven systems. Unlike licensed spectrum which is auctioned to cellular carriers, the 6 GHz band operates as shared, unlicensed infrastructure accessible to any compatible device, representing a critical commons for innovation. Some people in Congress apparently want to open up this spectrum for auction to raise badly-needed cash for the government. Cleland argues that the 6 GHz band's unlicensed structure has enabled and continues to enable rapid, decentralized innovation without regulatory barriers, which has positioned the US as the global Wi-Fi leader. Furthermore, he argues, protecting this spectrum is essential for emerging technologies requiring high-capacity connectivity (AI-driven manufacturing, precision agriculture, virtual reality) and frames the competition as fundamentally about out-innovating China rather than generating short-term federal auction proceeds.
The PolicySphere Briefing is brought to you by Baron Public Affairs
Baron Public Affairs and PolicySphere have cooperated on a series of articles on the upcoming EU directive CS3D:
"Understanding CS3D: The New EU Law That Could Cost U.S. Industry Trillions"
"CS3D Is Just One Way In Which Europe Exploits American Economic Vitality"
Chart of the Day
Have we tried replacing cops with "alternative responders"? Yes we have. Striking chart from Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute.
