Project Ceasefire Stockton

 On Monday September 24th, 2012, the City of Stockton released a press release:
 The Marshall Plan Stakeholder Committee on Public Safety convened early in 2012 with the goal of implementing a comprehensive community-wide plan, developed by a diverse group of community leaders and criminal justice experts, to reduce violent crime. The Committee has worked with consultants who for months have gathered data and conducted in-depth interviews with a broad range of stakeholders. The Committee and consultants have completed the initial analysis and background work, drawing on the experience and perspectives of the representatives, and determined that Project Ceasefire is a model that will have an immediate impact. The Ceasefire model has been implemented across the country and is a proven violence reduction strategy in cities such as Boston, Chicago and Cincinnati, resulting in dramatic reductions in firearms violence and homicides. In 2009, the State of California enacted AB 109, which is best known as "realignment." This legislation transfers responsibility for certain felony offenders and state parolees to county probation and jails and directs funding to counties for realignment implementation. The funding is directed by the local Community Corrections Partnership, which includes representatives from throughout the County criminal justice system, as well as the Chiefs of Stockton and Lodi Police Departments. Through discussions at the Marshall Plan Stakeholder Committee with County Probation, Stockton Police Department and other partners, it was determined that Project Ceasefire is an effective model and appropriate for funding and implementation.

Background: The Marshall Plan Committee was announced in March of 2012 as a result of public pressure and media scrutiny towards the lack of a comprehensive response from the mayor and city hall towards the escalating crime and violence which set a record homicide rate for the city in 2011. A “Marshall plan” was announced as part of Mayor Johnston’s State of the City Address in May of 2011 as a solution to the chronic levels of crime plaguing the city. The name of the plan is inspired by the United States’ plan to rebuild post WWII Europe as a way to combat the spread of Communism as overseen by Secretary of State George Marshall. It was predicated primarily on building up industry and economic stability as a way of combating chaos and keeping the Soviet Union at bay. Although it was announced by Mayor Johnston in May of 2011, it was actually the idea of City Manager Bob Deis as an all encompassing plan to bring progress to Stockton while addressing the crime rate as mentioned to myself in a meeting with him and Councilman Holman in October of 2010.
The month after the mayor announced the creation of such a plan, there were 12 murders in the city, many occurring in brazen attacks in public during the day. As the crime rate and violence soared over the summer and into the fall, the mention of such a “Marshall Plan” would not be heard of again until another man was shot in the head in traffic crashing into another car on Wilson Way, one of the city’s busiest streets in broad daylight. In response to this crime that brought Stockton closer to a new record, Tim Daly of News10 would catch the mayor off guard asking her what ever happened to the plan. Her response made it apparent she did not have the answer and there was no such plan to announce despite a record crime rates in the 6 months since her State of the City Address. She asked for 4 more weeks to unveil that plan. In December, 4 weeks later the mayor and city hall announced they would be on vacation and it would be announced in yet another month on January 31st, 2012. In the meantime Stockton reached an all time record for homicides in the city boundaries, which did not take into account those in the unincorporated parts of the city, police officer involved shootings, and “justifiable” homicides. 42 “unjustifiable” homicides had occurred since the announcement of creating such a plan.
http://www.news10.net/video/1386655905001/1/Stocktons-Marshall-Plan-to-bring-down-crime

The following year on January 31st at a city council meeting, still no plan was announced. Instead what was presented to the public was the “initiative” adopted by the council that called for adopting and creating such a plan from a city council meeting in April of 2011. In essence it was a commitment to make a plan to make a plan. Absolutely nothing was new or different from the document adopted 9 months earlier, despite promising to the city and media to create an actual “Marshall Plan” would be unveiled at the meeting.
http://www.news10.net/video/1429832160001/1/A-closer-look-at-Stocktons-Marshall-Plan

http://www.news10.net/video/1403165284001/1/Mayor-unveils-details-on-Stocktons-Marshall-Plan

Instead of an actual plan, the creation of a committee was announced and approved the following month. During this meeting it was also announced that an outside consultant would be paid $150,000 to “facilitate” meetings of the committee every 2 months with a “plan” being ready to be announced a year later in 2013. Many members of the community expressed outrage at spending yet more money while the city was facing bankruptcy just for someone to run meetings. There was also concern expressed to the make up and members of the committee and how qualified and connected to the issues of the community they were. As of September 2012 the committee has only met 4 times despite an even higher crime rate than 2011, which proved to be a record year. Since the announcement of a “Marshall Plan” in May of 2011, 92 have been murdered I the city limits.

Press release continued: "The work of the Marshall Plan Committee and the collaboration between the City and County to fund and implement Project Ceasefire is unprecedented in our community," said Mayor Ann Johnston. "We're now ready to launch Project Ceasefire, which is an immediate response to our highest priority - the safety of our community." The City and County will immediately move forward with Project Ceasefire to take action related to violent crime in the City. The Committee will continue working in the spectrum of prevention and intervention programs into 2013 through the final phase, which is to develop an implementation roadmap for community crime reduction and a better criminal justice system, beginning in spring 2013. For additional information, please visit www.stocktongov.com or call (209) 937-8827.

At first glance it again appears that something new and innovative is being done for the city by its “leaders” just as was the case with US Marshals and a Top 10 “worst boys and girls” list. But in looking further into the program it appears, just with the US Marshals, this program is nothing new to Stockton. It was implemented in 1997 when as usual crime was out of control in Stockton. Reports from California Partnership for Safe Communities touts the success of the program in Stockton from the 90’s as having an 80% reduction in youth homicides (http://partnershipforsafecommunities.org/who-we-are/the-partners). Their approach is to deal with gangs and youth prone to create violence by:

 “We work with community alliances to craft and communicate a powerful anti-violence message that is part of a broader change strategy. The anti-violence message is delivered to around 20 highest risk young people at a time. These meetings are hosted by a range of partners that might include school principals, coaches, local employers, residents of communities affected by violence, young people formerly involved in violence, advocates, service organizations, criminal justice agencies, family members, and faith leaders.”

In 1997, 19 of Stockton’s 37 homicides were gang related (Reynolds, Lessons from Stockton, Monterrey County Herald, 2009). In Stockton as of August 12 of the 40 homicides were gang related, showing not only has violence skyrocketed, but also it has spread past the involvement of violent gangs. http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-stockton-homicide-numbers-broken-down-20120809,0,5198036.story

This reality also illustrates the importance of considering and weighing different factors such as the economy, education, and law enforcement tactics such as the Gang Street Enforcement Teams (GSET) used in the 90’s. http://articles.latimes.com/2001/sep/24/local/me-49255 Ceasefire Programs as modeled after the one used in Boston in the 90’s are non effective unless they are coupled with effective police tactics such as GSET in Stockton as illustrated in the LA Times article above and only when police can be an effective partner:

 “Operation Cease- fire was a “relationship intensive” intervention based on trust and the ability of a diverse set of individuals to work together towards a common goal. Unfortunately, the description of Operation Ceasefire that generally circulates in criminal justice circles oversimplifies the Boston experience, which is a recipe for frustration and eventual failure. Trust and accountability are essential in launching a meaningful collaborative response to complex youth violence problems. The need for such collaborations does not guarantee that they inevitably arise or, once developed, that they are sustained. As Eugene Bardach has noted, different agencies are reluctant to give up control over scarce resources that could compromise their traditional missions; and they face difficulty aligning individual work efforts into a functional enterprise, or developing a collective leadership among a group of individuals aligned with the needs of their individual organizations.7 A central problem in creating and managing effective capacity-building collaborations is over- coming the corrosive problem of distrust. Like most cities, distrust characterized the relationship among criminal justice agencies and between criminal justice agencies and the inner-city community in Boston. (Braga, Anthony A. and Christopher Winship. "Creating an Effective Foundation to Prevent Youth Violence: Lessons Learned from Boston in the 1990s." Rappaport Institute Policy Brief (2005)).

 This can be a hurdle in a diverse community such as Stockton where White people are only 27% of the population, but constitute 70% of the police department; 60% of whom overall don’t even live in the city. The demographics of offenders and criminals contributing realty to the violence must be considered in comparison to this. It should also be considered how this Ceasefire program in Stockton will be different when the original one is still in existence, although severely understaffed. Although this is being promoted as a new idea, the Peace Keepers program we have today is what’s left of the Ceasefire program of the 90’s.
 http://www.montereyherald.com/gangs/ci_13328352?source=pkg

 Even as this program is being touted as part of the “Marshal Plan” we must ask why the issue of crime and violence hasn’t been given a higher priority from city leaders. The situation has declined to the point where areas of the city previously considered and taken for granted as safe are locations of heinous crimes that are committed in public in broad daylight. Even the elderly are not exempt from such crimes as reinforced by recent robbings and killings. Unlike the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, Stockton has yet to produce such focus. Our unemployment rate has reached as high as 22%, our overall poverty rate is 25% with some areas of town experiencing rates higher than 40%. Our median income is only $19,000 a year. Only 16% of our population has a BA degree or higher, well below state and national averages. Illiteracy and obesity rank among the worst in the entire nation. Or schools along with parents are failing to produce educated citizens at an acceptable pace.

Our leadership has been non-responsive, incompetent, and incompatible to progress and in the case of the mayoral race this year the opponent is an even worse alternative who was part of the fiasco that was the SUSD school board, which allowed a 54.6%, drop out rate in the high schools. Until all of these factors are addressed in a comprehensive, inclusive, and intelligently strategic way- the problems of Stockton, for which crime is just a symptom, will remain for generations more.