Program Goals/Target Population
The city of Stockton, Calif., averaged 35 gun homicides per year between 1990 and 1997 (Braga 2008). According to the 2000 Uniform Crime Report, Stockton ranked fifth with a violent crime rate of 1219.2 per 100,000 residents and seventh with a homicide rate of 12.3 per 100,000 residents (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2001). As a result, the Stockton Police Department (SPD) sought to implement an intervention modeled after the Ceasefire Initiative begun by the Boston (Mass.) Police Department, which used detailed information about gang activity to identify problem areas and reduce gang-related violence in the Boston metropolitan area.
Operation Peacekeeper uses a community and “pulling levers” focused deterrence strategy, to deter violent behavior by reaching out directly to gang members who chronically commit offenses, explicitly saying gun violence will no longer be tolerated, and enforcing that message by “pulling every lever” legally available when violence occurs (Kennedy 1997). The goal of this problem-oriented policing intervention is to reduce and prevent gang-related gun violence by gang-involved youth (ages 10–18) within all the areas of Stockton that have a serious gun homicide problem.
Program Components
Operation Peacekeeper uses a “pulling levers” approach, which includes: 1) convening an interagency working group of law enforcement practitioners; 2) conducting research to identify key offenders, groups, and behaviors; 3) framing a response to offenders and groups of offenders that uses a varied set of sanctions (“pulling levers”) to change offenders’ behaviors; 4) focusing social services and community resources on targeted offenders and groups to match law enforcement prevention efforts; and 5) directly and repeatedly communicating with offenders to make them understand why they are receiving special law enforcement attention (Kennedy 1997; 2006).
The SPD implements specific operational tactics, which include reassigning several patrol officers to a unit called the Gang Street Enforcement Team (GSET), who are meant to communicate a credible, clear message about the consequences of gang violence to youth involved in or at risk of being involved in gangs. GSET officers focus exclusively on violent gangs by targeting and responding to any illegal behavior, which can include offenses such as driving without a license or registration, drinking in public, and selling drugs. As a result of focused law enforcement attention, GSET officers are not obligated to perform regular patrol duties and are permitted to stay with a gang for as long as necessary to reduce violence.
Additionally, an interagency Peacekeeper work group was formed, which links efforts across all the local, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to work congruently on the problem of youth gang violence. The Peacekeeper working group members and social service and community-based partners send a direct message to violent gang members that they are “under the microscope” because of their violent behavior. The most common forum for communicating this message is through group meetings with youth on probation or parole who are at high risk of becoming involved in gang violence. Meetings are also held with at-risk youth at local secure facilities.
Key services provided through the Operation Peacekeeper intervention include employment services, wraparound services for youth and their families, and services designed to improve school performance. In addition, gang outreach workers (also known as youth outreach workers) work with the local Private Industry Council to provide jobs to gang-involved youth. In particular, gang outreach workers work in partnership with community probation officers, school officials, and other members of decentralized integrated service teams to offer a wide range of public and private services.
Key Personnel
The San Joaquin County California Youth Authority parole office; the California Department of Corrections parole office; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (AFT); the FBI; and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are key participants in intervention efforts. In addition, Peacekeeper working groups partner with officials from San Joaquin County (such as the Center for Positive Prevention Alternatives) to focus social service and opportunity provision programs to provide targeted gang-involved youth with meaningful alternatives to violence (Wakeling 2003).
Program Theory
Operation Peacekeeper uses a “pulling levers” approach, which specifically applies principles of problem-oriented policing (Eck and Spelman 1987; Goldstein 1990). Pulling levers strategies are framed as problem-oriented policing exercises designed to prevent serious violence among gang-involved offenders (Braga 2002). Problem-oriented policing works to identify a problem and to form responses using a wide variety of (sometimes nontraditional) approaches. Specifically, problem-oriented policing uses a basic iterative approach of problem identification, analysis, response, assessment, and adjustment of the response. This adaptable and dynamic framework is found to uncover complex mechanisms relative to gang violence and develop specialized interventions to reduce gang-related victimization (Braga 2008).
Additional Information
Operation Peacekeeper began in 1997 as a law enforcement initiative to address gun violence among youth gang members in Stockton, Calif. The program is still in operation today; however, Operation Peacekeeper is now implemented as a violence prevention and intervention program for high-risk youth and young adults and their families, under the direction of the Office of Violence Prevention (OVP). As provided by OVP, Operation Peacekeeper is a more comprehensive program, which utilizes community partnerships to assist with violence prevention and provide youth with opportunities for a healthier, nonviolent lifestyle. As such, the program offers youth (referred to as clients) both a life coach and a variety of resources.
