Operation Ceasefire

Proposed Oakland gang injunctions may complicate anti-gang efforts

Daniel Ramirez

Oakland city leaders will have to make hard choices about their approach to conflicting anti-gang programs

According to city officials, Oakland faces a “staggering gang violence problem,” with an estimated 2,000 active gang members from 65 gangs operating throughout the city, some with ties to statewide prison gangs like Nuestra Familia.

To tackle this dilemma, Oakland sought assistance from the California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention grant fund, which is run by the governor’s Office of Gang and Youth Violence Prevention. Created in 2007 by the state legislature, $27.6 million in Cal-GRIP funds had been awarded to 38 cities and 25 community-based organizations across the state as of November 2010.

Oakland was awarded a two-year Cal-GRIP grant in 2009 for a program tailored around the carrot and stick model of Operation Ceasefire, a nationwide violence prevention program pioneered in Boston and Chicago. The centerpiece of Operation Ceasefire is a program known as a “call-in”, which targets alleged gang members on probation or parole with a “scared straight” approach that both outlines the treatment they will receive from law enforcement if they continue to commit crimes while offering employment and education services to get them out of the street life. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics, Call-ins, Gang Injunctions, Oakland, Operation Ceasefire

March 25, 2011 | 10:28 AM | By Ali Winston

Do call-in programs work?

Oakland tries the carrot and stick approachby Ali Winston Download

All week, NPR has been highlighting efforts at reducing gang violence in Chicago, like the Ceasefire program. Oakland has turned to similar measures–instituting “call-in” programs that use a carrot-and-stick type approach to getting gang members out of criminal life.

Call-ins bring violent offenders face to face with police and attorneys so they can access services such as education and employment training. Sounds like a smart idea, but call-ins have their critics.

Jeff Baker, who was Assistant to the City Administrator when this program began two years ago, voiced skepticism about its strategy:

JEFF BAKER: Ultimately, what the police departments do is they enact a series of arrests. They go to hotspots, they arrest almost anything that moves. As a result, after a 3-4 month period, you have thousands of arrests of young black and brown men, all under the auspices that they’re gang members. And the police department is to offer up no explanation or criteria of what makes a gang member. Because you and I are on the corner together, are we gang members?

A year-and-a-half into the initiative, where does Oakland’s call-in program stand? The following piece looks at the program, its criticisms, and how the strategy fits into the city’s efforts to obtain gang injunctions. (Audio above, transcript after the jump.)

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, Call-ins, Gangs, Oakland, Operation Ceasefire

August 16, 2010 | 5:42 PM | By Ali Winston

Oakland crime dip continues, but grow houses still targets

Oakland Police Department

Oakland’s drop in violent crime, which we pointed out a few weeks back, shows no sign of letting up.

Crime statistics from August 1st to August 8 show 58 aggravated assaults, down 9 percent from 2009 and 24 percent from 2008.

55 robberies occurred in that span, 10 percent fewer than at the same point in 2009.

Although 19 shootings have taken place since the beginning of the month (11 from August 1 to August 8, and eight since), there has been only one murder, on August 10 in East Oakland.. To date, there have been 50 murders in Oakland, compared to 59 and 75 at this point in 2009 and 2008, respectively.

One notable crime trend is an increase in residential robberies (107 this year, up 45 percent) and burglaries (2,074 in 210 up 14 percent from 2009). Continue reading →