Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

THE ROLE OF POLICE
Operation Ceasefire
Commissioner Edward F. Davis and
Dr Anthony A. Braga report on strategic
gang violence prevention in Boston
Commissioner Edward F. Davis
is Commissioner of the Boston
Police Department
Dr Anthony A. Braga is a Senior
Research Fellow in the Program
in Criminal Justice Policy
and Management at Harvard
Kennedy School and the Don
M. Gottfredson Professor of
Evidence-Based Criminology in
the School of Criminal Justice at
Rutgers University
Gun violence remains a
serious problem in countries
throughout the world. In the
United States, some 10,000 people are
killed by guns each year. Rates of gun
homicide are much higher in urban
areas than elsewhere.
In Boston, a small number of
criminally-active gang members are
responsible for a disproportionate
amount of serious gun violence. Roughly
one per cent of Boston youth between
the ages of 14 and 24 participate in
street gangs; however, gang-related
violence generates half of the city’s
homicides and gang members are
involved in two-thirds of non-fatal
shootings in any given year. Gang
violence is often characterised by a
‘street’ culture that requires extreme
violence to settle disputes that are often
rooted in respect and status issues.
Dealing with ongoing gang violence
represents a constant challenge to law
enforcement agencies.
Police departments cannot successfully
address gang violence problems
without the support and involvement of
community members. Neighbourhoods
suffering from gang violence are often,
but not exclusively, characterised by
large numbers of minority residents,
high levels of social disadvantage, and
low levels of trust in police departments.
Residents of these communities are tired
of losing their young men and women to
senseless gang violence and want violent
offenders to be held accountable for their
violent actions.
However, community members also
don’t want to lose their youth to the
criminal justice system when they do
not deserve to be punished. The law
enforcement response to gangs cannot be
indiscriminate, overly harsh, or unfair.
While there are some highly violent
‘impact players’ that need to be
immediately arrested and prosecuted,
many gang members respond to
incentives, such as job training and
educational opportunities, when coupled
with meaningful disincentives, such as a
credible threat of focused enforcement.
This is one of the key insights of the
Operation Ceasefire gang violence
reduction strategy.
Problem-solving approach
Operation Ceasefire was a problemoriented
policing project launched in
the mid-1990s to address persistently
high levels of gang violence in Boston.
Currently, the Boston Police Department
uses the Ceasefire approach as its central
response to recurring gang violence.
Ongoing crime and intelligence data
collection and analysis are important
features of the strategy. Problem analysis
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