Program Profile: Operation Ceasefire: Hollenbeck Initiative

This was a policing initiative that targeted specific gangs in the Hollenbeck area of Los Angeles, California, through aggressive enforcement and problem-oriented policing. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant reduction in overall violent crimes in targeted blocks, compared with matched comparison blocks. However, there was no statistically significant effect on gang crimes or gun crimes.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

Program Goals

The Hollenbeck Initiative was a replication of Boston, Mass. Operation Ceasefire of the 1990s, which used problem-oriented policing to reduce gun violence and youth gang activity. The program was successful in reducing youth gang-related homicides, and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) hoped to achieve similar results. The original goal of the program was to increase the cost of violent behavior to gang members by applying sanctions and increasing the benefits of nonviolent behavior by providing social services. However, the intended goal was not able to be achieved after a triggering event prompted a rapid implementation of the program. The goal then shifted to targeting the gangs responsible for the event.

Target Sites

The Hollenbeck area was chosen as the target site for the initiative because of its high rates of gang activity and violent crime; gangs were predominantly composed of Hispanic members. Hollenbeck is a 15-square-mile area east of downtown Los Angeles that contains the communities of El Sereno, Lincoln, and Boyle Heights. The community urged law enforcement officials to take immediate action after the violence reached a new level of urgency: in 2000, a 19-year-old gang member and a 10-year-old girl were killed in a gang-related double homicide in Boyle Heights. This event triggered swift implementation of the Operation Ceasefire program in Boyle Heights, located in the southern area of Hollenbeck.

Program Components

The Hollenbeck Initiative used collaboration among law enforcement agencies, community organizations, and institutions to design the Operation Ceasefire program. These partnerships provided information and support necessary to implement the program. Originally, these organizations planned on providing such services as tattoo removal, substance abuse treatment programs, and job training. However, in the wake of the Boyle Heights shooting, the plan was changed to better address the situation.

After the shooting in Boyle Heights, the LAPD quickly allocated additional resources to the known territories of both Cuatro Flats, the offending gang, and The Mob Crew (TMC), the victimized gang. The department increased patrols within the five reporting districts near the site of the homicides and in Cuatro Flats and TMC territory. The LAPD also deployed police officers from specialized units to the area, including Metro Unit and the SWAT team, the Operations Central Bureau (OCB) Special Enforcement Unit, and the OCB Traffic Bureau. Each weekend for the following 2 months, two officers on horseback patrolled the local parks and the adjacent public housing development within the targeted area. Officers also visited the residences of known Cuatro Flats gang members and enforced outstanding warrants or parole violations and seized illegal drugs and weapons. While making these arrests, officers made it clear that their actions were a direct result of the violence committed by members of the Cuatro Flats gang.

In addition to the immediate actions taken against members of the two gangs involved in the event, several other measures were used. Activity in health and welfare agencies and housing units in the territories of both gangs was scrutinized for suspicious activities. Rewards were offered to the public in exchange for information leading to arrests in the triggering event and other events involving these gangs.

Key Personnel

Los Angeles Police Department officers, special units in LAPD, collaboration of criminal justice agencies, and community partners including social service agencies.

Program Theory

It was found that the majority of homicides in Hollenbeck were a result of gang disputes relating to respect and territory wars, rather than drug disputes or other types of crime. Thus, an initiative was designed to specifically target problematic gang activity in the area. Gang activity is usually concentrated in small areas in cities with high levels of disorder, drug dealing, and violence. Since gangs are often spatially concentrated in their own areas, known as “turfs,” the intervention could theoretically be concentrated on these specific areas.

A theory of “collective accountability” was used to apprehend gang-affiliated offenders—that is, all gang members would be held accountable for the actions of any individual member. Police officers emphasized this message whenever an arrest of a gang member was made, to communicate a message of zero tolerance for gang activity and to deter future violence.

Study 1

Tita and colleagues (2003) examined the impact of the Hollenbeck Initiative in Los Angeles, California, using a quasi-experimental design. The intervention began in October 2000. The study compared changes in crime rates for three periods across three comparison areas. The three periods were 1) the pre-intervention period (6 months before the triggering event); 2) the suppression period (4 months during which all parts of the intervention were applied); and 3) the deterrence period (2 months during which only selected parts of the intervention, such as heightened patrol of public housing units in the area and greater enforcement of probation and parole regulations, were applied). The three comparison areas were 1) Boyle Heights, compared with the remainder of the Hollenbeck area; 2) the five police reporting districts where the intervention was targeted, compared with the remainder of Boyle Heights; and 3) the census block groups comprising the turf of the targeted gangs, compared with census block groups scattered throughout Hollenbeck, which most closely matched the characteristics of the targeted area. The CrimeSolutions review of this study focused on the difference between the census block groups comprising the turf of the targeted gangs and their matched comparison blocks. No rival programs were in place in the Hollenbeck area at the time of the program.

Violent crime consisted of homicides, attempted homicides, robberies, assaults, and kidnappings. Gang crime consisted of violent crime and terrorist threats, firearm discharge, vandalism, and graffiti committed by gang members. Gun crime consisted of violent or gang crimes that involved a firearm. Data were obtained from two different LAPD files: one that included all violent crime incidents; and one that included violent crimes and other incidents in which the victim or the person committing the offense was known to be a member of a gang. Both files also contained detailed information on the weapon used in the crime, if applicable.

A matched propensity score analysis was conducted to identify comparison block groups with those that were similar to the targeted blocks on levels of crime and structural variables (i.e., income, poverty, residential stability, population density, educational attainment, and age structure). No subgroup analyses were conducted.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this practice:

Focused Deterrence Strategies

This practice (also referred to as “pulling-levers policing”) includes problem-oriented policing strategies that follow the core principles of deterrence theory. The strategies target specific criminal behavior committed by a small number of individuals who chronically commit offenses, such as youth gang members or those who repeatedly commit violent offenses, who are vulnerable to sanctions and punishment. The practice is rated Promising for reducing crime.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency - Multiple crime/offense types

Problem-Oriented Policing

These analytic methods are used by police to develop crime prevention and reduction strategies. The practice is rated Promising and led to a significant decline in crime and disorder.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency - Multiple crime/offense types

Reducing Gun Violence

Reducing gun violence is a persistent public policy concern for communities, policymakers and leaders. To reduce gun violence, several strategies have been deployed including public health approaches (e.g., training and safe gun storage); gun buy-back programs; gun laws; and law enforcement strategies. The practice is rated Promising for reducing violent gun offenses.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency - Violent offenses

Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?