RAND work on public safety issues ranges from policing and prisons to violent crime and the illegal drug trade, as well as homeland security and emergency preparedness. RAND delivers research that reflects our core values of quality and objectivity and helps inform policy debates that are often riddled with arguments driven not by evidence but by emotion and ideology.
Research conducted by: RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment; RAND Europe; Safety and Justice Program; Center on Quality Policing; Center for Health and Safety in the Workplace; RAND Drug Policy Research Center
Featured at RAND

A new collection of essays by experts from the RAND Corporation examines America in the decade since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, focusing a critical eye on the nation's actions since the attacks and outlining changes in strategy needed to improve efforts against jihadist groups.
Multimedia (10)
At this January 2012 Policy Forum, experts discuss the public health implications of a U.S. Supreme Court order to reduce the prison population by more than 30,000.
In this Resilient Communities podcast, Admiral Thad Allen discusses the critical questions confronting the field of community resilience as well as a new toolkit developed by RAND researchers to support community disaster planning.
Just days before the end of his tenure, Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton joined Greg Ridgeway, director of the RAND Safety and Justice Program, in this dialogue about the effect of mounting constraints on city and state resources and the state of public safety in Los Angeles and California.
In this July 2011 Congressional Briefing, Lois Davis discusses adjustments made by law enforcement agencies to strengthen their counterterrorism and homeland security capabilities, and the new funding challenges faced by police departments since 9/11.
At a TEDx event, Jennifer Rubin, Director of RAND Europe’s Communities, Safety and Justice Program, explored the hidden nature of the scale of serious and organized crime, such as drug and human trafficking, and suggested how a new approach inspired by methods used in the natural sciences could help to address these issues.
Admiral Thad Allen, then a senior fellow at RAND, presented “Managing the Unexpected” on April 19, 2011, as part of RAND's Issues in Focus public outreach series. Retired Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and National Incident Commander for the response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Allen discussed his experiences leading the nation's high-profile response to two national emergencies—the oil spill and Hurricane Katrina.
Discusses the large disparities between boys and men of color in California compared with their white counterparts across four broad domains -- socioeconomic, health, safety, and ready to learn.
On October 28, 2009, during his last week in office, Bratton visited RAND's headquarters campus in Santa Monica. He and Ridgeway discussed Bratton's tenure, achievements, and obstacles to success, as well as RAND's impact on policing in Los Angeles.
In a webinar given on November 19th 2008, researchers from the RAND Center for Public Health Preparedness provide guidance on applying quality improvement (QI) methods to public health emergency preparedness.
Individual preparedness is an important element of our nation's strategy for homeland security. Lynn E. Davis examines a scenario-driven approach that provides a rigorous way to identify actions-linked specifically to terrorist attacks-individuals can take to protect their health and safety.