Ceasefire Reduced Gang Shootings By 30 Percent-A Discussion Of Police Proactivity

Highlights

An overview of proactive police strategies with a focus on CeaseFire and Project Safe Neighborhoods.

Police proactivity is the only modality with a research base (based on multiple programs) indicating that it reduces crime and violence.

Author

Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.

Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of directing award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Former police officer. Aspiring drummer.

Author of ”Success With The Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization” available at Amazon and additional booksellers.

Article

I often write that proactive police programs are among the few modalities that reduce violence. I have a student asking for an example. There are many based on an evaluation of multiple studies of proactive policing. I decided to focus on CeaseFire.

The program described below is from CrimeSolutions.Gov, the clearinghouse focusing on the effectiveness of crime reduction programs from the Office of Justice Programs of the US Department of Justice. It addresses the CeaseFire program in Oakland, CA.

CeaseFire focuses on two principles: 1. stop the violence or law enforcement will target you for enhanced supervision and prosecution and 2. if you comply, we and allied agencies will assist you with social services and training-employment.

There are broad similarities with another highly-rated program, Project Safe Neighborhoods. Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide initiative that brings together federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, community leaders, and other stakeholders to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in a community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. PSN is coordinated by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in the 94 federal judicial districts throughout the 50 states and U.S. territories.

Per Wikipedia: Project Safe Neighborhoods expands upon strategies used in Boston’s Operation Ceasefire, and Richmond’s Project Exile.

Project Safe Neighborhoods is rated as “promising” by Crime Solutions.Gov.

Cease Fire is rated as “effective” by CrimeSolutioins.Gov.

History-CeaseFire

Per Wikipedia: Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, Boston, like many cities in the United States, experienced an epidemic of youth gun homicides. Violence was particularly concentrated in poor inner-city neighborhoods. Youth homicide (ages 24 and under) in Boston increased 230% – from 22 victims in 1987 to 73 in 1990. Between 1991 and 1995, Boston averaged about 44 youth homicides a year. Operation Ceasefire entailed a problem-oriented policing approach and focused on specific places that were crime hot spots. The focus was placed on two elements of the gun violence problem: illicit gun trafficking and gang violence.

I participated in two CeaseFire programs. From that experience, the emphasis seemed to be 80 percent enforcement and 20 percent social services.

Proactive Policing

Traditionally, law enforcement responds to calls and provides routine patrols. Generally speaking, anything beyond those two initiatives falls under the general description of proactive policing.

The only effort that indicates reductions in crime are proactive police strategies via the US Department of Justice and the National Academies of Sciences. Proactivity means that officers will take their own initiative to approach someone when they have the legal right to question or search. Proactive policing embraces a variety of tactics. But proactivity has major challenges.

Riots and demonstrations costing well over two billion dollars in insurance claims set off a chain reaction of dramatically increased violent crime and fear of crime, an explosion in firearm and security sales, and people fleeing cities. Businesses are closing or reducing their hours. Economic development in troubled areas is dead.

Most of the protests focused on events germane to proactive police tactics or the use of force. As I write this, there are threats of violent protests if the new mayor of New York reinstated a revised gun task force.

CeaseFire and Project Safe Neighborhoods and two examples of proactive policing. Project Safe Neighborhoods is a recommended program of the US Department of Justice as of May 2021 under the heading of A Comprehensive Strategy for Reducing Violent Crime.

CeaseFire in Oakland, California-Rated Effective

Summary

This is a focused-deterrence group violence reduction strategy (GVRS) designed to reduce or control gun violence in Oakland, Calif. The program is rated Effective. The intervention was shown to reduce total shootings, gang-involved shootings, suspected gang-involved shootings, and gang shooting victimizations in treatment block groups relative to matched comparison block groups. These differences were all statistically significant.

Program Goals/Target Population Summary

In 2012, the homicide rate in Oakland, Calif. was almost seven times that of the national homicide rate. As a result, the City of Oakland engaged the California Partnership for Safe Communities (CPSC) to help design an intervention (the Ceasefire intervention) that could help reduce serious gun violence. The Ceasefire intervention uses focused-deterrence group violence reduction strategies (GVRS) to reduce or control gun violence.

Problem analysis research showed that gang members were involved in nearly two thirds of gun homicides in Oakland between 2012 and 2013; therefore, the Ceasefire group violence reduction strategies intervention focused on gun violence related to gang members in the city.

Program Components

Ceasefire uses the key elements of the group violence reduction strategies which include trying to change offender behavior by understanding the underlying crime-producing dynamics and conditions that contribute to recurring crime problems, and implementing a blended strategy that involves law enforcement, community mobilization, and social service actions.

The CPSC partnered with the Oakland Police Department (OPD) to understand the underlying nature of gun violence in the city. A gang audit was used to identify specific gangs (including their rivalries and alliances with other gangs), and social network analysis was used to target gangs and determine the potential diffusion of the deterrence message to socially connected gangs.

The OPD leads an interagency Ceasefire enforcement group consisting of federal law enforcement agencies and state and county criminal justice agencies. The broader Oakland Ceasefire Partnership includes the mayor’s office, social service agencies led by the human services department, and community-based leaders and organizations. Enforcement actions are coordinated through OPD Ceasefire units, which consist of five centralized units of eight officers each and a gang investigations unit.

When the Ceasefire group violence reduction strategies is implemented (in response to serious gun violence from specific gangs), the OPD develops special enforcement strategies tailored to the vulnerabilities of the targeted gangs.

The Ceasefire partnership communicates directly and repeatedly with the targeted gangs to 1) inform them that shootings will no longer be tolerated, and continued gun violence will receive special enforcement attention; 2) describe the kinds of increased enforcement and sanctions that will be focused on them; and 3) offer services and opportunities to gang members who want to stop their violent behavior.

Evaluation Outcomes

Total Shootings

Braga and colleagues (2019) found that the Oakland Ceasefire group violence reduction strategies (GVRS) intervention was associated with a 20 percent decline in yearly total shootings in the matched intervention block groups, compared with the matched comparison block groups. This difference was statistically significant.

Quarterly Total Gang-Involved Shootings

The Ceasefire GVRS intervention was associated with a 26 percent decline in quarterly total gang-involved shootings in the directly treated gangs, compared with the matched comparison gangs. This difference was statistically significant.

Quarterly Suspected Gang-Involved Shootings

The Ceasefire GVRS intervention was associated with a 30 percent decline in quarterly suspected gang-involved shootings in the directly treated gangs, compared with the matched comparison gangs. This difference was statistically significant.

Total Gang Shooting Victimizations

The Ceasefire GVRS intervention was associated with a 23 percent decline in quarterly shooting victimizations in the directly treated gangs, compared with the matched comparison gangs. This difference was statistically significant

More Information

More information can be found on the program’s website: https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/oaklands-ceasefire-strategy.

Document Source: Office Of Justice Programs

Conclusions

Police proactivity exists under a variety of names and tactics with CeaseFire being one example.

Proactively was greatly reduced after the recent protests regarding police use of force. Arrests and correctional numbers plummeted. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, thousands of officers are leaving the job. Recruitment is down dramatically. Many cities don’t have enough police officers to respond to 911 calls.

Now, we have mayors begging cops to return to proactivity. We have skyrocketing violence, record fear of crime, gun and security sales increased dramatically, businesses are leaving impacted areas and people are exiting cities. It’s the African American community suffering the most.

Until other modalities prove themselves effective, community support and proactive policing are necessary for safe communities. CeaseFire and related programs have proven themselves to be successful in reducing violence.

See More

See more articles on crime and justice at Crime in America.

Most Dangerous Cities/States/Countries at Most Dangerous Cities.

US Crime Rates at Nationwide Crime Rates.

National Offender Recidivism Rates at Offender Recidivism.

An Overview Of Data On Mental Health at Mental Health And Crime.

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