What Dallas can learn from Oakland’s experience in lowering violent crime

The worst violence in a decade thrashed the city. Four teenagers and a grandmother were among those shot and killed. Residents cried for help. Faith and community leaders demanded that city officials commit to a crime-fighting effort.

This wasn’t Dallas in 2020. It was Oakland, Calif., in 2012.

Dallas’ sharp spike in homicides over the past two years bears a striking resemblance to Oakland’s crime surge nearly a decade ago. The Bay Area city of 434,000 embarked on a solution that cut gun violence in half over six years even as its population grew.

For a sustainable approach that yielded consistent results, criminologists point to Oakland’s Operation Ceasefire, a strategy driven by the community — not law enforcement. The approach worked until a nationwide uptick in violence during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dallas Police Chief Eddie García is taking a page from his former Bay Area counterparts to help curb a steady rise in violent crime. The former San José, Calif., chief, who arrived in Dallas in February, said he will employ “focused deterrence,” a key component of the Ceasefire strategy.

In 2019 and 2020, Dallas had back-to-back years of more than 200 homicides — the first time that’s happened since 2004 and 2005. All violent crime increased over the past five years.

Mayor Eric Johnson demanded a violent-crime reduction plan from Dallas police and convened a task force two years ago that produced recommendations, some based on Operation Ceasefire’s tactics.

After a year of protests over policing, Dallas, like other cities, is looking at new crime-fighting strategies. And experts say the time could be ripe to try interventions that don’t rely as heavily on law enforcement.

What is Ceasefire?

Focused deterrence strategies have gone by different names since Boston pioneered the first model in the 1990s to combat gang-related homicides. Similar strategies are now in place in at least 84 U.S. cities and are being tested in other countries, including Turkey and Brazil, to change the behavior of gang members, repeat offenders and low-level drug dealers.

With Ceasefire’s approach, Oakland police review gun violence incidents weekly and identify those likely to become a perpetrator or victim. Officers and community-based organizations invite those at risk to “call-ins” where they warn about the path they are on and offer an out before they pick up criminal charges or fall victim to violence. The program employs life coaches, usually people who faced and overcame similar circumstances, to provide counsel.

“These focused deterrence strategies are an absolute essential ingredient in any smart crime prevention strategy in the United States today,” said Alex Piquero, a criminologist and co-author of a report published last year in response to calls for police reform.

‘The Boston Miracle’

In 2012, Oakland saw violent crime increase 20% over the prior year. That year, 126 people were killed, compared to 102 in 2011 — a 24% increase.

Oakland needed a solution.

The city’s faith-based community had long championed Boston’s Ceasefire strategy, later dubbed “the Boston Miracle” because of its success. A coalition of Black ministers in Boston merged with police to host forums for gang members where they offered financial assistance and job training if they gave up on violence.

It seemed to work. In 1999, Boston had 31 homicides, down from 152 in 1990.

Oakland had tried twice before to replicate Boston’s approach without much movement, which is common when cities start out, said David Muhammad, executive director of the nonprofit National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform.

Criminologists note that the programs are only as good as they are implemented, and that focused deterrence strategies are not overnight fixes. Rather, they are long-term investments in neighborhoods where crime is most prevalent.

Killings spiked in cities where programs were abandoned, including Boston. Cities that revitalized their programs saw their violent crime rates drive downward again. Such was the case in Boston.