Oakland's violence prevention chief discusses plan to cope with shootings

OAKLAND - Weeks of violence in Oakland are taking a toll on residents, on police, and on the Department of Violence Prevention, a department tackling a big issue with a small staff.

The department's chief Guillermo Cespedes says the number of homicides has spiked.

"This is different from anything I've seen in my entire career," said Cespedes, who spent decades on Oakland's streets in the 1980s and 1990s as a social worker.

Cespedes presented data showing that Oakland had 77 homicides in 2019, 117 in 2020, and then 134 homicides in 2021.

On Tuesday, the death of Arturo Coronado, a father who tried to stop catalytic converter thieves outside his home, became the city's 101st homicide of 2022. The Department of Violence Prevention sent their "violence interrupters" to the scene.

"Our job is to talk to people to reduce retaliation when there's a shooting, to provide trauma services," said Cespedes.

He says the department of Violence Prevention was formed in 2017, but it didn't become fully staffed until just 2020.

"We didn't have an office until about a month ago. We're still building up staff," said Cespedes. 

The Department Of Violence Prevention shared some of this year's data.

The department has a budget of $10.5 million. That money helps fund a staff of 31 employees, plus gives out grants to community partners such as Youth Alive, Catholic Charities, and the East Bay Asian Youth Center to help families touched by violence. There are an additional 17 violence interrupters who are circulating

So far, the department has served more than 1,900 people.

The DPV also hosted nine "Town Nights," events in high-risk areas of East Oakland and West Oakland to build community and reduce violence.

Cespedes says during those summer events, violent incidents dropped 37% compared to the same period the previous year.

"It requires prevention services such as this, and it requires law enforcement, and the two need to be balanced," said Cespedes.

In the past few weeks, he and his team of five "violence interrupters" have worked around the clock, responding to homicide or shooting scenes to comfort families and de-escalate tense situations.

"The violence in Oakland is multi-generational. And it gets fueld by this cycle of trauma that keeps circling itself," said Cespedes.

Cespedes says he is building a department that hires people directly from the Oakland neighborhoods they serve.

"You always need people from that neighborhood, that block to address the violence there," said Cespedes, "That's a new form of city government that we're building. We think that's the way to go. We think that's what violence prevention requires. You need people that are credible in those communities."

Jana Katsuyama is a reporter for KTVU.  Email Jana at jana.katsuyama@fox.com and follow her on Twitter @JanaKTVU or Facebook @NewsJana or ktvu.com.