Triangle Incident Response for East Oakland

With the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP) as lead, the City of Oakland, California, population 435,000, is applying for a $1,000,000 Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) grant to implement Triangle Incident Response in East Oakland (TIREO) in partnership with Oakland Police Department (OPD) and community partner, Youth Alive! (YA!)

TIREO will focus on the crime hotspot neighborhoods in East Oakland, bounded by 8 police beats where on average 38% of Oakland’s shootings occurred in the past three years. Located within zip codes 94601, 94603, 94605 (partial), 94621, and a population of 106,000, where 23% of all residents and 32% of children live in poverty and experience high rates of trauma due to shootings and homicides. The area is a Qualified Opportunity Zone.

TIREO is a 24/7 coordinated crime scene or hospital bedside real time response to shootings with serious injuries, homicides, and gender-based violence by three triangle partners simultaneously. The triangle partners, staffed by professionals with different orientations and responsibilities, include: a) Community Violence Intervention workers or hospital staff specially trained to support victims of interpersonal violence b) Crime-scene Response Advocates with expertise in crisis intervention principles, and c) law enforcement with knowledge of the TIREO neighborhoods. Where implemented in the past, TIREO has reduced retaliatory shootings and improved police community relationships.

TIREO goals include: addressing crime hot spots in East Oakland neighborhoods by reducing retaliatory violence, engaging community in reducing collective trauma and solution building, enhancing collaboration among criminal justice partners through planning and implementation of BCJI activities, and building trust between law enforcement and community. OPD will provide data required to assess crime trends and incident-based data on shootings with injury and group/gang-related crime for the duration of the three-year grant period.

DVP will leverage existing staff as full-time project coordinator and to convene criminal justice and community partners and implement the TIREO Action Plan. Oakland’s BCJI partners include DVP, OPD, YA!, Oakland’s Transformative Climate Communities (TCC)- Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors, Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Alameda County Probation Department, and Urban Institute.

Current violence intervention and prevention efforts coordinated by DVP are primarily funded by local investments including a parcel tax voted on by Oakland residents. Oakland’s leadership is committed to a shared safety approach and in addition to its own recent general purpose fund investments is fostering public-private partnerships through the Oakland Innovation Fund to develop fundraising strategies for philanthropic and corporate support to end violence.