diff --git a/document/field/value.go b/document/field/value.go
index d1e1375..37176d5 100644
--- a/document/field/value.go
+++ b/document/field/value.go
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"math"
 
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/compare"
-	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/unsafe"
+	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/safe"
 
 	"github.com/cespare/xxhash"
 )
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ func (v *ValueUnion) Hash() uint64 {
 		// NB(xichen): Hashing on bit patterns for doubles might be problematic.
 		return 31*hash + math.Float64bits(v.DoubleVal)
 	case StringType:
-		return 31*hash + xxhash.Sum64(unsafe.ToBytes(v.StringVal))
+		return 31*hash + xxhash.Sum64(safe.ToBytes(v.StringVal))
 	case TimeType:
 		return 31*hash + uint64(v.TimeNanosVal)
 	}
diff --git a/server/http/handlers/options.go b/server/http/handlers/options.go
index 62b5ace..0037efd 100644
--- a/server/http/handlers/options.go
+++ b/server/http/handlers/options.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/parser/json"
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/parser/json/value"
+	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/safe"
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/unsafe"
 
 	"github.com/m3db/m3x/clock"
@@ -128,7 +129,7 @@ func defaultNamespaceFn(v *value.Value) ([]byte, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	return unsafe.ToBytes(ns), nil
+	return safe.ToBytes(ns), nil
 }
 
 // defaultTimeNanosFn parses the time value as a string in RFC3339 format.
diff --git a/server/http/handlers/service.go b/server/http/handlers/service.go
index 8d5acdc..62abb60 100644
--- a/server/http/handlers/service.go
+++ b/server/http/handlers/service.go
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/query"
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/storage"
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/safe"
-	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/unsafe"
 
 	"github.com/m3db/m3x/clock"
 	"github.com/m3db/m3x/context"
@@ -329,7 +328,7 @@ func (s *service) writeBatch(data []byte) error {
 
 	var multiErr xerrors.MultiError
 	for nsStr, events := range docsByNamespace {
-		nsBytes := unsafe.ToBytes(nsStr)
+		nsBytes := safe.ToBytes(nsStr)
 		if err := s.db.WriteBatch(nsBytes, events); err != nil {
 			multiErr = multiErr.Add(err)
 		}
diff --git a/storage/database.go b/storage/database.go
index e5d1bfb..094f1ca 100644
--- a/storage/database.go
+++ b/storage/database.go
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/query"
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/sharding"
 	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/hash"
-	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/unsafe"
+	"github.com/xichen2020/eventdb/x/safe"
 
 	"github.com/m3db/m3x/clock"
 	"github.com/m3db/m3x/context"
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ func (d *db) QueryRaw(
 	q query.ParsedRawQuery,
 ) (*query.RawResults, error) {
 	callStart := d.nowFn()
-	n, err := d.namespaceFor(unsafe.ToBytes(q.Namespace))
+	n, err := d.namespaceFor(safe.ToBytes(q.Namespace))
 	if err != nil {
 		d.metrics.queryRaw.ReportError(d.nowFn().Sub(callStart))
 		return nil, err
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ func (d *db) QueryGrouped(
 	q query.ParsedGroupedQuery,
 ) (*query.GroupedResults, error) {
 	callStart := d.nowFn()
-	n, err := d.namespaceFor(unsafe.ToBytes(q.Namespace))
+	n, err := d.namespaceFor(safe.ToBytes(q.Namespace))
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -231,7 +231,7 @@ func (d *db) QueryTimeBucket(
 	q query.ParsedTimeBucketQuery,
 ) (*query.TimeBucketResults, error) {
 	callStart := d.nowFn()
-	n, err := d.namespaceFor(unsafe.ToBytes(q.Namespace))
+	n, err := d.namespaceFor(safe.ToBytes(q.Namespace))
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/x/safe/convert.go b/x/safe/convert.go
index 6d91c15..63e25f2 100644
--- a/x/safe/convert.go
+++ b/x/safe/convert.go
@@ -6,3 +6,10 @@ package safe
 func ToString(b []byte) string {
 	return string(b)
 }
+
+// ToBytes safely converts a string to a byte slice.
+// TODO: This method should be removed when we move over to handling bytes in the
+// database hot path instead of strings.
+func ToBytes(s string) []byte {
+	return []byte(s)
+}