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# RAND offers answers to SM gun violence
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/rand-offers-answers-to-sm-gun-violence/
- Published: 2003-12-01T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:17:08.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Community, Downtown, #archive-import

*Study details dramatic improvements in Los Angeles neighborhood*

RAND CORP. — To help quell gun violence in neighborhoods riddled with gang activity, police need to step up law enforcement and work more closely with prosecutors, probation workers and community leaders, according to a report released last month.

“This kind of cross-agency collaboration can have a positive impact on the trajectory of gun violence,” said Jack Riley, director of the public safety and justice division of RAND Corp., a nonprofit research organization based in Santa Monica.

The RAND report covered a six-month “intervention” in Hollenbeck, a 15-square-mile area east of downtown Los Angeles with a population of 200,000\. Gun crimes were down by 33 percent during the intervention’s six-month period, while gang crimes dropped by 32 percent and violent crimes by 28 percent.

Locally, gun violence has been a persistent issue in the Pico neighborhood in eastside Santa Monica, where Jalonnie Carter, 19, was shot dead on Sept. 2 near his home on 20th Street and where numerous shootings have occurred in the past several months.

Riley said that, although Santa Monica has a minute level of violence compared to Hollenbeck, working collaboratively is the solution to ending gun violence. He added that parents, young adults and children living in violence-plagued neighborhoods have a role to play.

“They have to keep pressure on the policy makers,” he said, adding that pressure needs to be applied both individually and through various community groups.

Oscar de la Torre, founder and director of the Pico Youth and Family Center, said his group is doing exactly that. But de la Torre pointed to what he views as ineffective leadership at City Hall and said some changes need to be made.

“The leadership has to come from the top,” he said. “The city manager has to involve her staff — meaning the police chief and also the City Council — in a dialogue around what community-based policing is and how it applies to the Pico neighborhood. Right now, there’s a difference of opinion between the leadership of the SMPD and the leaders of the Pico neighborhood about what community-based policing is and should be.”

However, politics appears to be keeping the residents and City Hall officials from coming up with a solution together. After Carter’s murder, de la Torre organized a series of community gatherings but the SMPD was never informed of or invited to the meetings, police said.

The SMPD prides itself on community-based policing and has been working closely with probation and parole officers for years, said SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega. The SMPD, which already has more officers assigned to the Pico neighborhood than anywhere else in the city, also has stepped up enforcement there in the past. When an increase in shootings occurred last year, the SMPD worked with the Hawthorne Police Department to patrol the area via Hawthorne’s helicopter.

But de la Torre said police responded to a spate of shootings earlier this summer by clamping down on the entire neighborhood rather than specifically targeting suspected gang members, as was done in the RAND study. He added that some residents have complained that police are out of touch with the neighborhood’s residents.

“Essentially, what we end up doing is criminalizing the low-income sector of the city,” de la Torre said. “And not only is that not effective policing, it’s disempowering.”

> “Make sure that people know that they’re concerned about violent crime issues.”

The Pico neighborhood has for years been an area riddled with drug dealing and gang activity. The majority of the population are minorities with low incomes. In the past decade, many more middle-class families have moved into the area because it has relatively lower home prices.

Hollenbeck was chosen as the site of the RAND program, called “Operation Ceasefire,” after the death of 10-year-old Stephanie Raygoza, who was caught in gang crossfire while riding her scooter in front of her Boyle Heights home in October of 2000.

As part of the study, police officers met regularly and worked with probation officers, parole workers, housing officials, prosecutors from the local, state and federal levels, and representatives from local schools, churches and social service agencies.

One strategy was to use police records and give gang members top priority for probation, parole and warrant enforcement after a violent act was committed. The idea, Riley said, was to give immediate consequences for violent actions.

Gang members also were subjected to heightened police patrols following violent outbreaks and stricter standards in applying for public housing — including stepped-up patrolling for drugs, firearms and other contraband, according to the report. At the same time, volunteers and others from Hollenbeck churches, schools and other social-service organizations provided support services, including job training and development, tattoo removal, and treatment for addictions.

While the study showed a dramatic decrease in crime, Riley said the intervention did have its limitations. In order to work effectively, key players have to have the authority and the confidence to act without getting mired in bureaucracy. And organizations have to participate on an ongoing basis, without distraction or partial participation.

City Councilman Herb Katz said the study provides a useful roadmap for stopping gun violence in Santa Monica.

“It’s, in essence, what really has to happen,” he said. “Education along with working very carefully with the community.”

De la Torre said he thinks there’s hope. The second meeting of the Youth Violence Prevention Coalition, formed to address this very issue, was scheduled for last week at the Pico Youth Center.

“If they can get it together, I’m certain, with the right leadership at the table, we can get it together,” he said.

Asked what suggestions she had for helping to put an end to gun violence, Shirley Joseph — Jalonnie Carter’s mother — said, “Right now, I really don’t have the answers. I can’t speak for other people.

“But, for me, they need to spend more time with their kids and families, and teach them more morals and get them into church. People need to get to church and get God in their lives, instead of the guns

> “People need to get to church and get God in their lives, instead of the guns in their pockets.” — – SHIRLEY JOSEPH Mother of homicide victim

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 1, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/120103.pdf?ref=smdp.com)