City Council
March 21, 2023
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Steven Falk FROM: G. Kentrell Killens
Interim City Administrator Interim Chief, Department
of Violence Prevention
SUBJECT: SUPPLEMENTAL – Summer 2023
Town Nights contracts
DATE: March 16, 2023
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution To:
1. Amend City Council Resolution No. 89273 To Increase The Amount Of Grant Agreements To Non-Profit Entities To Conduct Town Nights Violence Intervention Events For A Twelve-Month Term Beginning July 1, 2022, And Ending June 30, 2023, For An Additional Amount Of Four Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($450,000) For A Total Amount Not To Exceed One Million Fifty Thousand Dollars ($1,050,000);
2. Waive The City of Oakland’s Local And Small Local Business Enterprise Program (L/SLBE) Requirements And Competitive Bidding Process And Award A New Grant Agreement To Family Bridges, Inc. To Conduct Town Nights Violence Intervention Events For A Six-Month Term Beginning April 1, 2023, And Ending September 30, 2023, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($150,000);
3. Waive The City of Oakland’s L/SLBE Requirements And Competitive Bidding Process And Award A New Grant Agreement To East Oakland Boxing Association To Conduct Town Nights Violence Intervention Events For A Six-Month Term Beginning April 1, 2023, And Ending September 30, 2023, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($150,000).
REASON FOR SUPPLEMENTAL
The Public Safety Committee reviewed this item at its meeting on March 14, 2023, and the item was added to the March 21st City Council agenda on non-consent with a request for a supplemental report including more information on evaluation results from Summer 2022 Town Nights. The Summer 2022 Town Nights Summary Report is being submitted as an attachment with this supplemental report. This report was created by Department of Violence Prevention (DVP) staff and compares shooting data during Summer 2022 Town Nights events to shooting data from the previous summer during corresponding days and weeks to explore impact.
Mar 16, 2023
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: SUPPLEMENTAL – Summer 2023 Town Nights contracts Date: March 16, 2023 Page 2
City Council
March 21, 2023
As discussed at the March 14th Public Safety Committee meeting, the City of Oakland has contracted with Urban Institute from August 1, 2022, to July 31, 2025, to conduct an outcome evaluation of programs and activities funded by Measure Z, including Town Nights. Urban Institute researchers provided the following summary of the evaluation they will conduct pertaining to Summer 2023 Town Nights events, which is expected to be completed by December 2023:
Town Nights provides a safe and prosocial activity for residents of neighborhoods with high levels of crime during hours when the risk of violence is higher. There are two primary mechanisms by which Town Nights can impact the occurrence of violence and experience of community trauma. First, Town Nights mobilizes a large number of community residents and organizations, thereby providing a heightened sense of vigilance and guardianship in high-risk neighborhoods during peak hours for street-level violence. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that there would be less violence during hours and months when Town Nights activities occur.
Second, through interactions among residents at Town Nights events and pre-event mediation conversations facilitated by DVP staff, the events may produce an increased level of awareness for street-level violence and collective engagement to address it. For individuals involved in group conflicts, this may result in peace agreements that extend during Town Nights events and beyond. For residents who are not involved in group conflicts, Town Nights can help strengthen relationships and social cohesion, which can lead to improved feelings of safety and an increase in willingness to report crime to the police.
Urban Institute will examine these mechanisms of impact using two evaluation techniques:
difference-in-difference estimation and propensity score matching. These techniques involve comparing changes in outcomes (e.g., street-level violence and calls for service) over time between Town Nights neighborhoods and non-Town-Nights neighborhoods that are otherwise similar in important ways, such as historical levels of violence, demographic composition, and socioeconomic characteristics. This approach is one of the most rigorous evaluation designs available absent a randomized controlled trial.
This outcome analysis will be accompanied by a process evaluation that will examine how Town Nights events were implemented. Based on interviews with DVP staff and providers involved in Town Nights, analysis of relevant administrative data, and community resident surveys, Urban Institute will identify key themes in implementation challenges and successes. Urban Institute will also assess residents’ feelings of safety, connectedness to neighbors, and awareness of violence intervention resources. These results will help contextualize results from the outcome evaluation.
DVP staff would also like to note that Family Bridges, Inc. and East Oakland Boxing Association both meet the criteria for the City of Oakland’s Local And Small Local Business Enterprise Program (L/SLBE) and have submitted applications for certification. There has been a delay in processing L/SLBE applications due to the ransomware attack, which is why they have not received their certifications yet.
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: SUPPLEMENTAL – Summer 2023 Town Nights contracts Date: March 16, 2023 Page 3
City Council
March 21, 2023
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution To:
1. Amend City Council Resolution No. 89273 To Increase The Amount Of Grant Agreements To Non-Profit Entities To Conduct Town Nights Violence Intervention Events For A Twelve-Month Term Beginning July 1, 2022, And Ending June 30, 2023, For An Additional Amount Of Four Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($450,000) For A Total Amount Not To Exceed One Million Fifty Thousand Dollars ($1,050,000);
2. Waive The City of Oakland’s Local And Small Local Business Enterprise Program (L/SLBE) Requirements And Competitive Bidding Process And Award A New Grant Agreement To Family Bridges, Inc. To Conduct Town Nights Violence Intervention Events For A Six-Month Term Beginning April 1, 2023, And Ending September 30, 2023, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($150,000);
3. Waive The City of Oakland’s L/SLBE Requirements And Competitive Bidding Process And Award A New Grant Agreement To East Oakland Boxing Association To Conduct Town Nights Violence Intervention Events For A Six-Month Term Beginning April 1, 2023, And Ending September 30, 2023, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($150,000).
For questions regarding this report, please contact Kentrell Killens at [email protected].
Respectfully submitted,
G. Kentrell Killens
Interim Chief, Department of Violence
Prevention
Attachment (1):
A: Summer 2022 Town Nights Summary Report
Gregory K. Killens (Mar 16, 2023 15:41 PDT)
Gregory K. Killens
Summer 2022 Town Nights
Summary Report
OVERVIEW
In June and July 2022, the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP) funded community-based organizations in Oakland to host Town Nights events at nine locations across the city on Friday evenings from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. Events took place at all nine locations on the following four consecutive Friday nights: June 17, June 24, July 1, and July 8. Events also took place at eight locations on July 15. Town Nights is a community-driven violence prevention and intervention strategy that involves four components:
▪ Outreach to community members to attend events
▪ Employment opportunities for residents who work at events ▪ Recreational activities and food available for free to all attendees ▪ Violence interruption dialogues facilitated by violence interrupters and community engagement teams that are intended to reduce future violence
An analysis of data from the Oakland Police Department (OPD) on assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during Sumer 2022 Town Nights weeks and corresponding days in 2021 revealed significant reductions in 2022 compared to 2021. It should be noted that these findings are not causal; in order to establish a causal relationship between the events and the reductions in violence, a rigorous evaluation employing randomization and a control group is required. However, they are suggestive that Town Nights events play a role in reducing assaults with a firearm and homicides in Oakland.
▪ During Summer 2022 Town Nights event hours (6pm to 10pm), there were 3 assaults with a firearm or homicides in Town Nights police beats or adjacent police beats compared to 5 during comparison days and hours in 2021. This is a 40% reduction. ▪ During the Friday nights that included Summer 2022 Town Nights events (6pm Friday to 6am Saturday), there were 12 assaults with a firearm or homicides in Town Nights police beats or adjacent police beats compared to 20 during comparison days and hours in 2021. This is a 40% reduction.
▪ During the weekends that included Summer 2022 Town Nights events (6pm Friday to 6pm Sunday), there were 30 assaults with a firearm or homicides in Town Nights police beats or adjacent police beats compared to 52 during comparison days and hours in 2021. This is a 42% reduction.
▪ During the entire 4-week period that Summer 2022 Town Nights operated, beginning on June 17, 2022, and ending on July 15, 2022, 82 assaults with a firearm or homicides took place in Town Nights police beats or adjacent police beats compared to 131 during comparison days in 2021. This is a 37% reduction.
For comparison, during the weeks that Summer 2022 Town Nights operated, assaults with a firearm were down 22-26% and homicides were down 13-19% in Oakland overall compared to 2021.
BACKGROUND
Town Nights is one component of the DVP’s broader public health strategy to reduce group and gun violence, gender-based violence, and community trauma in Oakland. In Oakland, as in other large cities across the county, shootings increase during evening hours and on the weekends. Town Nights provides a safe and prosocial activity for residents of neighborhoods with high levels of crime during hours when violence is most common in order to reduce the likelihood of violence occurring. The events facilitate positive relationship development between neighbors who might not otherwise have the opportunity to interact, creating social capital that can serve as a protective factor against future violence. Most importantly, violence interrupters and community engagement team members funded through the DVP facilitate critical violence interruption dialogues between community members with a history of violent conflicts in advance of and during Town Nights events, with the goal of creating agreements to “hit the pause button” on violent activity.
Summer 2022 Town Nights events took place at nine locations across Oakland and were hosted by 11 community-based organizations (Table 1; Figure 1).
Table 1. Location, address, and host organization(s) for Summer 2022 Town Nights events.
Location Address Host organization(s)
Elmhurst Park 9700 C Street Basic Ministry
Lincoln Square Park 261 11th Street Family Bridges
Arroyo Viejo Park 7701 Krause Ave Black Cultural Zone
Homies Empowerment
Liberation Park 7101 Foothill Blvd Black Cultural Zone
Acorn Learning Center 1143 10th Street Khadafy Washington Project Urban Peace Movement
Hoover Elementary School 890 Brockhurst Street Hoover-Foster Resident Action Council Urban Peace Movement
Verdese Carter Park 9600 Sunnyside Street Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency Adamika Village
Josie De La Cruz Park 1637 Fruitvale Ave Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice
San Antonio Park 1701 E 19th Street Trybe, Inc.
METHODS
This report presents the number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place in OPD community police beats that hosted Summer 2022 Town Nights events1 and all adjacent police beats2 (Figure 1) during the following time frames:
▪ Event hours: 6:00 to 10:00pm on Fridays (4 hours)
▪ Entire Friday night: 6:00pm on Friday to 6:00am on Saturday (12 hours) ▪ Entire weekend: 6:00pm on Friday to 6:00pm on Sunday (48 hours)
1 Police beats in which Town Nights events occurred: 02X, 03X, 06X, 18X, 20X, 30X, 30Y, 33X, 34X (9 beats) . 2 Police beats adjacent to Town Nights events: 01X, 02Y, 03Y, 04X, 05X, 05Y, 07X, 08X, 10Y, 12X, 17X, 17Y, 18Y, 19X, 21X, 21Y, 23X, 25Y, 26Y, 27Y, 29X, 31Y, 31Z, 32X, 32Y, 35X, 35Y (27 beats).
This report also presents the number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place in police beats that hosted Summer 2022 Town Nights events and all adjacent police beats during the entire Summer 2022 Town Nights implementation period (June 17, 2022, through July 15, 2022). These data are broken down by region of Oakland: West Oakland, Central Oakland, and East Oakland. The rationale for reporting on violent crime outside of designated Town Nights event hours is that mediation activities taking place in advance of and during a Town Nights event are intended to impact activities over an extended period of time.
Figure 1. Location of Summer 2022 Town Nights events in relation to OPD community police beats.
For all Summer 2022 data presented, comparison data are presented for the corresponding days in 2021 (Table 2). Changes in the number of assaults with a firearm and homicides in 2022 as compared to 2021 cannot be directly attributed to Town Nights events due to a lack of randomization and use of a control group, but they are suggestive of impact.
Table 2. Dates of Summer 2022 Town Nights events and comparison days in 2021.
Date of Summer 2022
Town Nights events
Comparison date in
2021
June 17 June 18
June 24 June 25
July 1 July 2
July 8 July 9
July 15 July 16
Police beats
where Summer
2022 Town Nights
events took place
Police beats
adjacent to beats
where Summer
2022 Town Nights
events took place
Location of
Summer 2022 Town
Nights event
Data on assaults with a firearm and homicides used in this report represent incident-based reporting and were obtained from OPD. Homicide incidents are represented by penal code PC187(A). Penal codes representing assault with a firearm include the following and may reflect an individual being shot at and injured by a bullet, an individual being shot at but not injured by a bullet, or an individual being physically assaulted with a firearm itself:
- PC245(A)(2): Assault with a firearm on a person
- PC245(B): Assault with a semiautomatic firearm on a person - PC664/187(A): Attempted murder with a firearm
- SC245: Assault with a deadly weapon (firearm)
RESULTS
Across all sites, 12,229 community members attended the Summer 2022 Town Nights events (Table 3).
Implementation of Town Nights involved hiring 182 local residents to staff the events across all sites, providing helpful job experience and financial support to individuals in these communities.
Table 3. Community attendance at Summer 2022 Town Nights events by event date.
Date Number of people
June 17, 2022 1,810
June 24, 2022 2,778
July 1, 2022 2,612
July 8, 2022 2,855
July 15, 2022 2,174
Total 12,229
Tables 4-9 present the number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place in police beats that hosted Summer 2022 Town Nights events and all adjacent police beats during Town Nights event hours, event nights, and event weekends in 2022 and during comparison days in 2021.
Table 4. Number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during Town Nights event hours, event nights, and event weekends in 2022 and during comparison days in 2021 for ALL WEEKS.
Time period Summer 2022
Town Nights
Comparison days
in 2021
% Reduction
from 2021 to
2022
Event hours (4 hours) 3 5 40%
Entire Friday night (12 hours) 12 20 40%
Entire weekend (48 hours) 30 52 42%
Table 5. Number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during Town Nights event hours, event nights, and event weekends in 2022 and during comparison days in 2021 for Week 1.
Time period Summer 2022
Town Nights
Comparison days
in 2021
Event hours (4 hours) 1 0
Entire Friday night (12 hours) 2 11
Entire weekend (48 hours) 4 13
Table 6. Number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during Town Nights event hours, event nights, and event weekends in 2022 and during comparison days in 2021 for Week 2.
Time period Summer 2022
Town Nights
Comparison days
in 2021
Event hours (4 hours) 0 0
Entire Friday night (12 hours) 3 2
Entire weekend (48 hours) 11 7
Table 7. Number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during Town Nights event hours, event nights, and event weekends in 2022 and during comparison days in 2021 for Week 3.
Time period Summer 2022
Town Nights
Comparison days
in 2021
Event hours (4 hours) 0 0
Entire Friday night (12 hours) 5 1
Entire weekend (48 hours) 5 6
Table 8. Number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during Town Nights event hours, event nights, and event weekends in 2022 and during comparison days in 2021 for Week 4.
Time period Summer 2022
Town Nights
Comparison days
in 2021
Event hours (4 hours) 0 2
Entire Friday night (12 hours) 0 3
Entire weekend (48 hours) 7 13
Table 9. Number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during Town Nights event hours, event nights, and event weekends in 2022 and during comparison days in 2021 for Week 5.
Time period Summer 2022
Town Nights
Comparison days
in 2021
Event hours (4 hours) 2 3
Entire Friday night (12 hours) 2 3
Entire weekend (48 hours) 3 13
Table 10 presents the number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place in police beats that hosted Summer 2022 Town Nights events and all adjacent police beats during the entire Summer 2022 Town Nights implementation period (June 17, 2022, through July 15, 2022) and comparison dates in 2021 by region of Oakland.
Table 10. Number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during the entire Summer 2022 Town Nights implementation period and comparison dates in 2021 by region of Oakland.
Region of Oakland Summer 2022
Town Nights
Comparison days
in 2021
% Reduction
from 2021 to
2022
West Oakland 17 27 37%
Central Oakland 23 29 21%
East Oakland 42 75 44%
Total 82 131 37%