In recent years, Oakland has mounted a faithful and effective implementation of Operation Ceasefire, a response to unacceptable violence rates in the city and a troubled relationship between the community and police. In 2013, the strategy began to pay off. Oakland saw a 20 percent decline in homicide, the single largest in 40 years.
In this opinion piece for the New York Times, Tina Rosenberg highlights the NNSC's group violence prevention work across jurisdictions.
In Pittsburgh, homicides hit a 12-year low in 2017; the mayor credited Ceasefire. Detroit’s homicide rate hit a 50-year low in 2017. Its police chief, James Craig, said in an interview that the city had started Ceasefire in two high-crime precincts in 2015 and has gradually expanded it. “I wasn’t much of a believer when I first got to Detroit,” he said. “But what we have in place now is probably one of the better-working Ceasefire models. It has had a profound impact on sustaining violent crime reduction.”
In Newburgh, statistics in a voluminous New York State report show shootings are way down (See pdf, page 1202) — from 55 victims in 2015 to 17 last year. Violent crime, especially firearm crime, has plummeted. In 2012, the year Oakland began its current version of Ceasefire, it was the third-most dangerous American city, with 126 murders. Last year it had 74. In 2017, Oakland had 277 nonfatal shootings — down from 557 in 2012.
"While movies, television and news outlets often give the impression that entire cities and neighborhoods are filled with thugs, criminals and killers, the reality is that those responsible for a majority of shootings represent a tiny percentage of the residents of any given city. In response to this fact, effective gun violence reduction strategies adopt a highly targeted, data-based approach in which the small number of individuals most at risk for shooting (and being shot) are provided with individualized programs of support and pressure to lay down their guns. To this end, law enforcement officials, clergy members, community leaders, social service providers and mentors who have themselves escaped violent lifestyles work in partnership with one another to help these individuals turn their lives around."
The tech giant’s philanthropic arm will grant $2 million to fund gun violence prevention programs in communities of color in 10 American cities. Most of the investment will go to programs that follow the model of Ceasefire, a violence-reduction strategy that coordinates law enforcement, community stakeholders, and social services to drive down shootings. The grants will also establish job-training programs for gunshot victims and perpetrators, and workshops for law enforcement on anti-bias policing.
Analyzing 183 hours' worth of body camera footage from the Oakland Police Department (OPD), a team of Stanford researchers found that police officers tended to be "less respectful, less polite, less friendly, less formal and less impartial" towards black drivers during traffic stops as compared to whites. Responding to this report, OPD Deputy Chief Leronne Armstrong pointed out that the data used was from 2014. Since that time, the entire department has undergone a series of trainings related to procedural justice.
The San Bernardino (CA) City Council has approved a plan to implement a violence reduction strategy similar to NNSC's Group Violence Intervention. Leaders from Oakland CeaseFire, partners of NNSC, will consult San Bernardino on the implementation.
On March 6, the San Bernadino City Council unanimously approved an agreement with California Partnerships to implement Ceasefire, the violence reduction intiative that has significantly reduced homicides in Oakland and Stockton.
At a call-in meeting in Oakland, the police profess love and respect for the group members and now homicides are now on the decline. Could the two be connected?
SF Gate interviews two men who have made major life changes after receiving help from service partners of Oakland Ceasefire.
Pico’s Lifeline to Healing project aims to reduce gun violence in high-risk communities through a coalition of community groups, local clergy and government agencies at all levels. Lifelines first brought together local church leaders—including Pastor McBride and Rev. Billy Dixon, Jr—to head Friday Night Walks, during which marchers listen to the concerns of, and show solidarity with, residents in East Oakland’s more violent neighborhoods.
Sociologist Andrew Papachristos used statistical analysis to show that fatal shootings, a major part of Oakland's crime problem, are for the most part not random but an outgrowth of social relationships among men who practice risky criminal behavior.
