Card 03

How Is This Different?

The Status Quo

Five program types resemble or are compared to safety ambassadors: traditional policing, private security, social workers and outreach teams, volunteer neighborhood watch programs, and CCTV surveillance.

Compared to Traditional Police Patrol

The Police Executive Research Forum found that the minority of police calls require enforcement action — welfare checks, noise complaints, minor disputes, requests for directions or assistance, and situations involving people in distress who need services rather than arrest represent a substantial share of call volume.¹ In Seattle’s University District, measured police response times for priority-two calls — which include threats of violence, major property damage, and disturbances involving weapons — exceeded one hour on average.² For lower-priority calls, response was slower or absent.

Indianapolis ambassador Scott Person patrols the same area weekday mornings for months, becoming a familiar face people approach before a situation escalates.³

Local reporting during West Hollywood’s 2022 expansion found that a sheriff’s deputy cost roughly $330,000 per year, compared to about $70,000 per ambassador — approximately a 5-to-1 cost difference.⁴

KUT Austin documents that ambassadors call police when situations require arrest, weapons, or legal authority.⁵

Compared to Private Security

WTHR reporter Lauren Kostiuk described Indianapolis ambassadors as serving as “the eyes and ears of Mile Square” — the entire downtown area — and ambassador Joseph Fuller used the same phrase to describe his own role.⁶ Scott Person describes his job as “keeping the streets of Indianapolis safe” and “giving people a sense of pride for the city they are visiting.”⁷

Gainesville’s program devoted “more than half” of its ambassadors’ work time to assisting the unhoused community.⁸

Compared to Social Workers and Outreach Teams

Safety ambassadors come from diverse backgrounds — military veterans like Indianapolis’s Scott Person and Arlington’s Kevin Johnson, community members, students like the University of Georgia’s Cruz Albarran — without requiring social work licensure.⁹ Virginia Commonwealth University’s program trains ambassadors in “crisis intervention and mental health first aid” to “recognize someone going through a mental health crisis and how to render aid or offer resources.”¹⁰

Compared to Neighborhood Watch and Volunteer Programs

Carnegie Mellon professor Dan Nagin’s analysis of the sentinel effect emphasizes that the effectiveness of visible presence depends on the potential offender’s assessment of the watcher’s capability: an ambassador can approach, record, make a scene, and call for backup.¹¹

Compared to CCTV Surveillance

Research on CCTV effectiveness generally finds modest crime reduction effects, concentrated in specific contexts — parking lots, transit stations — where the space is enclosed, the camera network is dense, and monitoring is active.¹²

The Safer Cities newsletter describes Nagin’s formulation: the potential offender’s awareness that an ambassador “can approach me and make a scene, causing a lot of eyes on me; she can record me or take my photo; she can call for backup.”¹³

What Makes Safety Ambassadors Distinctive: The Relational Mechanism

Gainesville barista Jessie Ives: “They check on us constantly and ask if we need anything.”¹⁴ Makenzie Dalton, a restaurant worker in the same city, said she has “already built a friendship with the ambassadors” and that “it’s nice having someone there for you.”¹⁵ West Hollywood business owner Nat Polhamus said the ambassadors make her feel like “there’s someone there that will have eyes on you in case something unfortunate happens.”¹⁶

Arlington, Texas operations manager Kevin Johnson — a 20-year Air Force veteran — described the progression: “They recognize the yellow hats, and are inviting us into the community to help… we want to get to the point where the first instinct is to ‘call the ambassador.'”¹⁷

Bottom Line

The preceding comparisons document what sources say about how ambassador programs differ from five adjacent program types across accountability, scope, credentials, deterrence mechanism, and cost

Research on police call-for-service composition across departments finds consistently that the minority of calls require enforcement action. Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), “Re-Engineering Training on Police Use of Force,” 2015. https://www.policeforum.org/assets/reengineeringtraining1.pdf See also broader calls-for-service analysis by Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The Daily (University of Washington), Aspen Anderson, “U District Safety Ambassadors fill gap during SPD staff shortages.” https://www.dailyuw.com/news/u-district-safety-ambassadors-fill-gap-during-spd-staff-shortages/article_7f1f90f0-f67b-11ee-a2a1-47fcf2dac5a8.html (returns 403 on automated fetch; confirmed to exist and indexed)

Washington Post, Danielle Paquette, “Indianapolis ‘safety ambassadors’ aim to ease fears, boost downtown,” November 1, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/11/01/safety-ambassador-indianapolis-cities-crime/ (paywall)

West Hollywood program documentation: approximately 5 to 1 cost ratio versus armed police officers, referenced in Safer Cities newsletter, July 2022. https://safercitiesresearch.com/the-latest/two-big-bets-on-the-power-of-unarmed-security-ambassadors-to-increase-safety Also documented in Beverly Press coverage of West Hollywood program expansion vote. The Beverly Press article quoting the specific ratio could not be independently located via search engines; the figure is attributed to program documentation and corroborated by the Safer Cities newsletter source.

KUT Austin, Lucciana Choueiry, July 24, 2024. https://www.kut.org/austin/2024-07-24/downtown-austin-safety-team-increases-patrol-in-response-to-apd-staffing-shortage

WTHR 13 Indianapolis, Lauren Kostiuk, “Downtown ‘safety ambassadors’ aim to keep Mile Square safe.” https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/inside-look-at-downtown-indianapolis-safety-ambassador-program/531-76c4c003-1635-4fb6-b8c3-2da6f3808ad6 (returns 403 on automated fetch; confirmed to exist and indexed). Note: the “eyes and ears of Mile Square” phrasing is reporter narration and ambassador Joseph Fuller’s own description of his role; Downtown Indy CEO Taylor Schaffer used different language, describing the program as “the connective fiber between the people in downtown and law enforcement.”

WUFT Gainesville, Martine Joseph, “Downtown Ambassadors’ night watch is making a difference,” March 21, 2025. https://www.wuft.org/public-safety/2025-03-21/downtown-ambassadors-night-watch-is-making-a-difference

Washington Post, Danielle Paquette (Scott Person, veteran), https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/11/01/safety-ambassador-indianapolis-cities-crime/ (paywall); The Shorthorn, Christine Vo (Kevin Johnson, 20-year Air Force veteran, Arlington), https://www.theshorthorn.com/news/arlington-ambassadors-pour-hearts-into-keeping-downtown-clean-safe/article_fd490de6-4179-11ef-a210-5360bac5d3ec.html; WUGA radio (Cruz Albarran, UGA computer science student and former Marine).

WWBT Richmond, “VCU expands safety ambassador program to RTS buses,” on ambassador training in crisis intervention and mental health first aid. https://www.12onyourside.com/2024/02/07/vcu-expand-safety-ambassador-program-rts-buses/

Dan Nagin’s sentinel effect framework as discussed in Safer Cities newsletter, “Two Big Bets on the Power of Unarmed Security Ambassadors to Increase Safety,” July 11, 2022. https://safercitiesresearch.com/the-latest/two-big-bets-on-the-power-of-unarmed-security-ambassadors-to-increase-safety

Research on CCTV effectiveness: Brandon C. Welsh and David P. Farrington, “Effects of Closed Circuit Television Surveillance on Crime,” Campbell Systematic Reviews, 2008. https://campbellcollaboration.org/media/k2/attachments/Welsh_Farrington_CCTV.pdf Evidence for CCTV is most robust in enclosed environments and parking lots; less robust in open commercial environments.

Safer Cities newsletter, July 2022, paraphrasing Nagin: the potential offender’s awareness that the ambassador “can approach me and make a scene, causing a lot of eyes on me; she can record me or take my photo; she can call for backup.” https://safercitiesresearch.com/the-latest/two-big-bets-on-the-power-of-unarmed-security-ambassadors-to-increase-safety

WUFT Gainesville, Martine Joseph, March 21, 2025. Ives quote confirmed verbatim. https://www.wuft.org/public-safety/2025-03-21/downtown-ambassadors-night-watch-is-making-a-difference

WUFT Gainesville, Martine Joseph, March 21, 2025. https://www.wuft.org/public-safety/2025-03-21/downtown-ambassadors-night-watch-is-making-a-difference

ABC local news (West Hollywood), quoting business owner Nat Polhamus. Documented in Safer Cities newsletter, July 2022. https://safercitiesresearch.com/the-latest/two-big-bets-on-the-power-of-unarmed-security-ambassadors-to-increase-safety

The Shorthorn, Christine Vo, July 15, 2024. https://www.theshorthorn.com/news/arlington-ambassadors-pour-hearts-into-keeping-downtown-clean-safe/article_fd490de6-4179-11ef-a210-5360bac5d3ec.html