GROUP VIOLENCE REDUCTION STRATEGY Four Case Studies of Swift and Meaningful Law Enforcement Responses

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GROUP VIOLENCE REDUCTION STRATEGY Four Case Studies of Swift and Meaningful Law Enforcement Responses Four CaseCase StudiesStudies of Swift andand Meaningful Meaningful Law EnforcementEnforcement Responses Responses Sibylle vonvon Ulmenstein Ulmenstein and and Bonnie Bonnie Sultan Sultan Center for for Crime Crime Prevention Prevention and and Control Control John Jay Jay College College of of Criminal Criminal Justice Justice This project was supported by a Cooperative Agreement #2010-CK-WX-K006 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues. The Internet references cited in this publication were valid as of the date of this publication. Given that URLs and websites are in constant flux, neither the author nor the COPS Office can vouch for their current validity. ISBN: 978-1-935676-24-9 August 2011 GROUP VIOLENCE REDUCTION STRATEGY Four Case Studies of Swift and Meaningful Law Enforcement Responses Sibylle von Ulmenstein and Bonnie Sultan Center for Crime Prevention and Control John Jay College of Criminal Justice About the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (the COPS Office) is the component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community policing by the nation’s state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies through information and grant resources. The community policing philosophy promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime. In its simplest form, community policing is about building relationships and solving problems. The COPS Office awards grants to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire and train community policing professionals, acquire and deploy cutting-edge crime-fighting technologies, and develop and test innovative policing strategies. The COPS Office funding also provides training and technical assistance to community members and local government leaders and all levels of law enforcement. Since 1994, the COPS Office has invested more than $16 billion to add community policing officers to the nation’s streets, enhance crime fighting technology, support crime prevention initiatives, and provide training and technical assistance to help advance community policing. More than 500,000 law enforcement personnel, community members, and government leaders have been trained through COPS Office-funded training organizations. The COPS Office has produced more than 1,000 information products—and distributed more than 2 million publications—including Problem-Oriented Policing Guides, Grant Owner’s Manuals, fact sheets, best practices, and curricula. And in 2010, the COPS Office participated in 45 law enforcement and public-safety conferences in 25 states in order to maximize the exposure and distribution of these knowledge products. More than 500 of those products, along with other products covering a wide area of community policing topics—from school and campus safety to gang violence— are currently available, at no cost, through its online Resource Information Center at www.cops.usdoj.gov. More than 2 million copies have been downloaded in FY2010 alone. The easy to navigate and up to date website is also the grant application portal, providing access to online application forms. — 2 — About the National Network for Safe Communities The National Network for Safe Communities, launched in 2009 by the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, is a coalition of police chiefs, prosecutors, mayors, community leaders, service providers, street outreach workers, scholars, ex-offenders, and others concerned about the impact of crime and current crime policies on communities. The National Network brings together jurisdictions from around the country that are actively implementing two effective strategies to reduce violence and eliminate drug markets. The strategy for preventing gang violence, first developed in Boston as “Operation Ceasefire,” has been successfully applied in cities as diverse as Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Stockton, California. The strategy for eliminating overt drug markets, first developed in High Point, North Carolina, has been successfully applied in jurisdictions as diverse as Providence, Rhode Island; Hempstead, New York; and Nashville, Tennessee. The National Network is committed to “saving lives, saving communities” by taking its innovative drug market and group violence strategies to scale and serving the nation’s most vulnerable communities. A substantial body of research and field experience shows that these strategies greatly reduce violent and drug crime, reduce incarceration, strengthen communities, and rebuild relationships between law enforcement and communities. The National Network currently consists of 51 member jurisdiction sites and is designed to support its members by raising the visibility of their work, offering them technical support, recognizing and helping others learn from their work and innovations, supporting peer exchange and education, and conducting research and evaluations. A smaller set of “Leadership Group” sites is working with the larger National Network to develop, demonstrate, and represent a new national standard in addressing violent and drug crime. The Leadership Group’s current members, through commitment of their police chiefs or executive officials, are: Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; High Point, North Carolina; Los Angeles, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Providence, Rhode Island; the state of California; and the state of North Carolina. Please visit www.nnscommunities.org for detailed information on the National Network’s mission, its strategies, research findings, media coverage, events, and membership. — 3 — Acknowledgments ACKNOWLEDGMENTS These case studies were written by Sibylle von Ulmenstein and Bonnie Sultan of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice on behalf of the National Network for Safe Communities. They were produced with the generous support of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (the COPS Office) at the U.S. Department of Justice. Special thanks go to Katherine McQuay, Assistant Director, Partnerships and Technical Assistance, for her support of and advocacy for this project. The information presented in this document, unless otherwise cited, is based on interviews with practitioners or researchers from leading National Network for Safe Communities jurisdictions. We would like to thank the following for contributing their time, knowledge, and insights to this document: BOSTON, MA, and LOWELL, MA: Dr. Anthony Braga, Rutgers School of Criminal Justice. CHICAGO, IL: Deputy Chief Brian Murphy, Counterterrorism and Intelligence Unit, Chicago Police Department. CINCINNATI, OH: Captain Daniel Gerard, Special Services Unit, Cincinnati Police Department. — 4 — Contents Acknowledgments .................................................. 4 Introduction ........................................................ 7 Boston, Massachusetts ............................................. 8 Chicago, Illinois ................................................... 14 Cincinnati, Ohio. 20 Lowell, Massachusetts ............................................ 27 Appendix .......................................................... 31 Cincinnati’s Award-Winning “Northside Taliband” Investigation Robin S. Engel and Daniel Gerard .............................. 31 Bibliography ....................................................... 40 — 5 — Introduction INTRODUCTION The National Network for Safe Communities’ group violence reduction strategy, sometimes referred to as “Operation Ceasefire” after its original implementation in Boston, holds that violent crime can be dramatically reduced when law enforcement, community members, and social services providers join together to directly engage with street groups and gangs to clearly communicate: (1) a law enforcement message that any future violence will be met with clear, predictable, and certain consequences; (2) a moral message against violence by community representatives; and (3) an offer of help for those who want it. For the strategy to achieve its desired outcomes stakeholders must be authentic and the messages they deliver must be credible. For law enforcement this means making good on the promise of swift and meaningful consequences for the street group as a whole, as soon as a prohibited violent act is committed by even just one street group member after a call-in (or other form of offender notification). The publication captures examples of successful and creative law enforcement responses to group violence as carried out by police departments at key National Network jurisdictions. It explores: • How law enforcement partners identified the prohibited violent act that triggered their response • How the act was linked to a particular street group or gang • How active group members were identified for special enforcement
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