Operation Ceasefire

Operation Ceasefire (also known as the Boston Gun Project) is a youth gun violence intervention strategy, first implemented in 1996 in Boston.

Boston

Violence was particularly concentrated in poor inner-city neighborhoods including Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan.^[1] There were 22 youths (under age 24) killed in Boston in 1987, with that figure rising to 73 in 1990.^[1] Operation Ceasefire entailed a problem-oriented policing approach, and focused on specific places that were crime hot spots. Focus was placed on two elements of the gun violence problem, including illicit gun trafficking^[2] and gang violence.^[1]

Within two years of implementing Operation Ceasefire in Boston, the number of youth homicides dropped to ten, with one handgun-related youth homicide occurring in 1999 and 2000.^[3] Youth homicides later climbed again with 37 in 2005 and reaching a peak of 52 in 2010.^[4]

Other cities

The Operation Ceasefire strategy has since been replicated in other cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and various cities in New Jersey including but not limited to Newark, Irvington, Camden and Paterson.^[5]

Guns-for-tickets

Operation Ceasefire is also the name for a guns-for-tickets exchange program that was once run by the Denver Police Department, in conjunction with the Denver Nuggets,^[6] Colorado Rockies, and Denver Broncos.^[7]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Kennedy, David M., Anthony A. Braga, Anne M. Piehl (2001). Reducing Gun Violence: The Boston Gun Project's Operation Ceasefire. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/188741.pdf. 
2. ^ Braga, Anthony A., Glenn L. Pierce (2005). "Disrupting Illegal Firearms Markets in Boston: The Effects of Operation Ceasefire on the Supply of New Handguns to Criminals". Criminology & Public Policy 4 (4). NCJ 212303. 
3. ^ Rushefsky, Mark E. (2002). "Criminal Justice: To Ensure Domestic Tranquility (Chapter 7)". Public Policy in the United States: At the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century. M.E. Sharpe, Inc.. 
4. ^ http://www.bpdnews.com/2010/11/16/crime-data-%e2%80%93-january-1st-%e2%80%93-november-16th-2009-vs-2010/
5. ^ National Institute of Justice (February 2005). Research Report: Reducing Gun Violence - Operation Ceasefire in Los Angeles. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/192378.pdf. 
6. ^ Boeck, Greg (October 14, 1993). "Nuggets' Ellis makes mark with little fanfare". USA Today. 
7. ^ "Bengals, Bucs protest ruling". USA Today. December 16, 1993.