Cleveland introduces crime prevention and enforcement program in Ward 18:
OPERATION FOCUS TARGETS ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT STREET CRIME CITYWIDE
by Joe Narkin

(Plain Press, July 2008) Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson introduced Operation Focus, a new street crime prevention program, at a by-invitation-only meeting at the Nuevo Luz Urban Resource Center on May 28. He introduced the plan to those who needed to hear about it the most – 15 adolescents who were invited to attend the meeting because they had committed minor street crimes and been involved in other harmful group activities within Ward 18.

While Operation Focus is similar to projects that have proven to be highly successful in reducing gun, drug, and street crimes among young adults in Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities within the United States, Cleveland is unique in employing such an intervention model with adolescents who are at risk of increasing involvement in group oriented criminal activities.

Mayor Jackson has stated throughout his administration that, while crime is a serious problem in the City of Cleveland that must be addressed through aggressive law enforcement and prosecution, opportunities for economic and social growth within Cleveland Neighborhoods are also required to reduce street crime. Agreeing that aggressive law enforcement sweeps are necessary to community safety, Blaine Griffin, Director of the Cleveland Community Relations Board, said that, under the current dire economic climate in Cleveland, crime has become, by default, a profitable business and “once you sweep the streets (of criminals), there is a backfill of people ready to take their place.”

While the 15 young people (and the family members and friends that accompanied them to the meeting) received a clear message that Cleveland will be very active in arresting and prosecuting those committing crimes, they were called to the meeting because “the community, while fed up with crime, cared about them and hoped that they would participate in the array of employment, job training, education, guidance, social growth, and follow-up resources that are available to them through Operation Focus,” said Griffin.

As an example of the support available to them, each of the youth participants in attendance were invited to participate in a paid summer job and training program through the City of Cleveland that could lead to a completion certificate and permanent employment. Early results appear encouraging as four of the youths attending the meeting have entered the jobs program to date and two others have become involved in GED high school equivalence diploma programs.

“You are on the edge,” Mayor Jackson said to the youth, “If you chose to go the right way, we will help you. If you choose the wrong way, we are going to make sure that you are going to jail for a long time. Tonight we are going to ask you to make a choice.” Supporting the Mayor’s message, Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath encouraged participants to “respect our community, respect each other, and respect yourselves” and said “You respect yourself by making the right decision.”

As a demonstration of the Cleveland Police Department’s determination and ability to enforce the law, McGrath, Deputy Chief of Special Operations Edward Tomba, and First District Commander Thomas McCartney presented display boards with photographs, names, and sentences of 30 locally known, young, street criminals who had been recently arrested and incarcerated for up to 30 years in federal prison without a chance for parole.

McGrath emphasized that all members a group associated with street crimes, not just the offender, would be rounded up following a crime. “If you do something wrong, everybody (in your group of street crime associates) is going to suffer,” said McGrath. If you disobey the law, “we are coming and we are coming in force,” he said, encouraging participants to spread the word of strict law enforcement and available opportunities to their associates on the streets.

Duane Deskins, an attorney with the U.S District Attorney’s Office for the Northern District and a prime influence in the creation of Operation Focus, encouraged participants to take advantage of the opportunities presented and make the right choice. He used himself as an example of how someone from humble beginnings can make a positive difference in the community. “I did not have a Harvard education,” he said, “but I have taught at Harvard.”

“There is never going to be a shortage of beds in federal prison” and “Congress will keep writing checks” for the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of those who engage in gun, drug, and other crimes subject to the federal prosecution,” Deskins said.

The Police Chiefs of the Cleveland Municipal School District, the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, and the Regional Transit Authority also attended the meeting in an expression of support for the multi-jurisdictional law enforcement approach being taken under Operation Focus.

Instructing the youth participants to turn around and look at the audience, Councilman Jay Westbrook said, “You may think that nobody is watching what you are doing – that nobody cares – but the people who you see in the audience both know and care.”  What the youths saw when they turned around was a full audience of over 100 concerned people representing family members, pastors, police and court officers, government representatives, and social service agencies. They also saw reformed ex-convicts and family members victimized by youth crime and violence, including Mothers Against Youth Violence, who were there to support participants in making good choices.

While emphasizing his hope that participants would make the right choices and giving a guarantee that they would be supported by the community in making good choices, Westbrook said, “This is my neighborhood and people are fed up with hearing guns, you running through their backyards, and you stealing their property” and that such activities must stop for the benefit of those attempting to live a peaceful life in Ward 18.

Ward 18 was chosen to initiate Operation Focus in Cleveland because of a “high level of successful community involvement in efforts to create and maintain a safe community under the leadership of Councilman Westbrook,” said Community Relations Board Director Griffin. Since Operation is neighborhood-based, “we do not come to this issue from an abstract point of view because we know these kids, we can offer direct guidance and resources to these youths,” and we can give them a good reason to “separate from criminal activities and influences before they are caught up in a vicious system,” added Griffin.

Vital to Operation Focus is an understanding that crime prevention efforts are most effective when neighborhood residents, merchants, churches, schools, and social service agencies take a leadership role in creating safe communities and receive full support from governmental, law enforcement, and social service systems throughout an urban region. The success of the program, said Griffin, will depend upon “building strong connections with neighborhoods, believing in their ability to develop effective solutions, and rallying around neighborhood crime prevention efforts.”

SAFEighteen staff members Birgit Hilliard and Michael McDonald were integral to the success of the inaugural meeting of Operation Focus and are firmly committed to seeing that the program remains responsive to local needs in Ward 18. After letters were sent to the 23 homes of youth invited to attend the first meeting, Councilman Westbrook, SAFEighteen staff, and volunteers from the community visited each home to explain the program and encourage them to attend with friends and family members. Such personalized contact will be a key factor in following up with initial participants and conducting new intervention meetings in the future.

While the Community Re-Entry Program of Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries will be engaged under Operation Focus to deploy teams of streetwise, reformed ex-offenders to provide outreach intervention and guidance to young people involved in street crimes throughout the City, Hilliard indicated that Ward 18 residents are currently being recruited for training as youth outreach volunteers for Operation Focus. These volunteers will be critically important in helping at risk youth, their families, and neighbors to find a healthy and productive way of living in community and will be highly effective because they will be “passionate, directly involved, committed, and visibly present” representatives of Project Focus in the community. The key to success, said Hilliard, is “to break the cycle through committed community support.”

Recognizing that those individuals who are taking a leadership role in organizing and profiting from criminal activities at the street level will likely be resistant to the message of Operation Focus, McDonald believes that the project will be most successful by targeting youthful followers of these leaders. “Lot’s of kids are scared and heavily susceptible to peer pressure,” said McDonald. “Very few people are leaders and most are followers. We are targeting the followers.”

Hilliard agrees. “A handful (of youths on the street) are creating problems,” said Hilliard. “A (youth crime) leader can pull a whole neighborhood down and do damage.” But with the right support and the best guidance of the neighborhood, the young people who are followers can be cultivated to be future community leaders. A youth targeted by Operation Focus is “not chosen because he is a bad kid,” she said, “but he is on the verge of falling off the edge and we are trying to bring him back and to help him grow.”

Asked what message she would most like to get across to the community about Operation Focus, Hilliard said, “This is a tough job, but with the help of the community we can do it. It is the community that will make Operation Focus work.”

Asked the same question, McDonald said he would like youths and families to know that “I am on your side all the way, but you need to make the right choice.”

During the first week of June, another Operation Focus meeting was held in Ward 12 (Slavic Village) with meetings in other wards throughout the City of Cleveland to be held throughout the remainder of 2008. Meetings with young adults (18 to 24) will be scheduled at a later date. For additional information regarding Operation Focus in your neighborhood, please call the Cleveland Community Relations Board at (216) 664-3290.

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