Ron Dellums agrees that making the streets of Oakland safe and reducing violence, especially among youth, is a priority for Oakland. As he creates a blueprint for curbing the rising tide of violence that is devastating our community and its young people, I strongly encourage the new mayor and the City Council to take a serious look at a model that has worked in other cities.

This year, homicides in Oakland have nearly doubled over the same period last year. Shootings sometimes occur daily, or even every few hours, terrorizing residents and business owners. Young people in Oakland find themselves in a constant state of wariness. Gun-related youth violence — typically involving young people between the ages of 12 and 24 as victims or perpetrators — usually makes up the bulk of our community violence.

Other cities have tried a unique approach and have produced a dramatic drop in serious youth violence. In Boston, in the early 1990’s, the efforts produced a long-term 60 percent drop in youth homicide. Minneapolis, Stockton and Baltimore have adopted similar approaches with notable success. Stockton reduced youth homicide by 80 percent.

While Oakland will require a customized approach, what these cities did is worth a good look. First, they formed a broad partnership, including law enforcement, city agencies, faith communities, youth outreach and community organizations, and political and business leaders. These groups worked together in a coordinated fashion with the shared goal of preventing violence.

Second, they figured out who was committing the crime and how by analyzing police, health and other databases. They found rather surprising information. For example — the number of youth and gangs “driving” the problem was much smaller and more manageable than the level the street violence suggested. Truly violent youth and gangs represented a tiny percentage of young people in those cities, but they were responsible for as much and sometimes more than half of gun-related violence. And the few individuals actually behind the violence had long criminal histories.

Local, state, and federal criminal justice agencies decided to focus their efforts jointly on this small but highly dangerous group of offenders. At the same time, these agencies worked with local groups that provided at-risk youth and their families with a range of constructive alternatives to violence.

Together, these partners mounted an intense communication effort targeted at youth who were at the highest risk of violence. The message was clear: violence would not be tolerated. They also added an important twist: they talked directly and respectfully with youth, telling these young people that committing violence would result in intensive attention from all of these law enforcement agencies — and they did so before violence heated up. Equally important, they connected youth to supports and services to find jobs, go back to school, make better choices. By doing this, they made a commitment to preventing gun violence rather than just reacting to it.

These efforts produced real results. They also had the advantage of coordinating existing programs and strategies into a cohesive process that did not require a lot of new money. Some city officials are already very interested in this approach. But to give it a fighting chance it needs to start with strong leadership from both the Mayor and City Council.

I urge Mr. Dellums and the City Council to look at what is working in other cities — it’s likely to work here in Oakland, too.

— Walter J. Haas

June 23, 2006

Walter J. Haas is Co-Chair of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund; Chair of Team-Up for Youth, a nonprofit based in Oakland that uses the power of sports to help young people grow into healthy, confident adults; and former CEO and Chair of the Oakland Athletics.