Authors
Aqeela Sherrills is the founder and Executive Director of the Community Based Public Safety Collective (CBPSC) and the co-lead of Scaling Safety. He is a nationally recognized leader with three decades of experience building community solutions to urban violence. After launching the Newark Community Street Team — which helped this New Jersey city which was once one of the most violent in the US reduce its homicides by 50% — he founded CBPSC in 2021 to advise and train grassroots public safety organizations on methods to reduce and prevent violence. Previously, Aqeela was the chief architect of a gang truce in Watts, Los Angeles, that lead to the launch of The Reverence Project, which brought together activists, healers and artists in urban “war zones” to shift the culture from violence, shame, guilt and fear into forgiveness, compassion, reverence and truth. Aqeela has also served as a senior advisor and co-architect of The White House’s Community Violence Intervention Collaborative, the first-ever White House initiative on community violence intervention.
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September 16, 2025
TED
The grassroots movement transforming public safety
In 1992, something unprecedented happened in Los Angeles: rival gang members negotiated a historic peace treaty, significantly reducing violence across the city. Aqeela Sherrills, one of the key negotiators of that treaty, continues to bring his vision of community-led peace programs to cities across the US. He shares how the new initiative Scaling Safety is empowering trusted local leaders to redefine public safety and create lasting change from the inside out. (This ambitious idea is part of The Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change.)
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