Oakland Landscape Analysis
Learn More about Oakland Landscape Analysis
Our Violence Reduction Work in Oakland
NICJR has worked to develop, improve and sustain a gun violence reduction strategy in Oakland, CA, where we are headquartered.
NICJR Executive Director David Muhammad has played a key role in Oakland Ceasefire since its 2012 launch, and NICJR has provided technical assistance to the strategy since our founding in 2017. Our report, Oakland’s Successful Gun Violence Reduction Strategy (2018) describes the strategy and its success—including seven consecutive years of declines in shootings and homicides, culminating in a 49% reduction in injury shootings and murders. The Ceasefire strategy was mostly dismantled after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the city saw significant increases in violence during this time. In 2023, NICJR partnered with the California Partnership for Safe Communities in conducting an audit of Oakland Ceasefire that offered a roadmap for reinstating the effectiveness of the Ceasefire strategy.
Success of Ceasefire
The City’s renewed commitment to Oakland Ceasefire has resulted in dramatic decreases in violence, including a 32% decrease in homicides and a 33% decrease in nonfatal shootings from 2023 to 2024. And as of July 2025, the city had seen an additional 24% decrease in homicides and 31% decrease in assaults with a firearm, compared to the same period the year prior.
Transformative Investments
With a renewed commitment to Ceasefire, the City of Oakland is also a participant in the Coalition to Advance Public Safety (CAPS), through which NICJR is providing intensive training and technical assistance to the Oakland Department of Violence Prevention (DVP), Oakland Police Department, and key community-based providers. We have also launched monthly community violence intervention ecosystem coordination meetings with key community-based providers and DVP.
Additionally, NICJR has provided more than $1.5 million in NICJR Giving Initiative funding to community-based organizations that are key to Oakland Ceasefire as well as families served through Ceasefire. We also conducted a study that calculated the direct costs of gun violence to Oakland taxpayers and developed a Landscape Analysis of violence reduction programs and initiatives in Oakland.
Direct Services for High-Risk Individuals
NICJR also now provides direct services to highest-risk individuals identified through Ceasefire. This includes facilitating Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise cognitive behavioral therapy trainings for high-risk, group-involved individuals referred by DVP and providing emergency relocation services for individuals who are in imminent danger of being victims of gun violence.
