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Welcome to Project Safe Neighborhoods

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is a comprehensive, strategic approach to reducing gun violence in America coordinated locally through U.S. Attorneys’ offices and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.

As research partner to the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego PSN task forces, RAND’s role is to support the research and strategic planning components of the initiative. The goals of this program are to

• increase the capacity of PSN task forces to design data-driven strategies that produce measurable decreases in firearms-related crime, and
• improve the long-term ability of federal, state, and local agencies to work together to understand, prosecute, and prevent firearms-related violent crime within their jurisdictions.

Project Safe Neighborhoods is being conducted under the auspices of ISE's Safety and Justice Program

Working Papers and Reports

Listed below are ongoing reports produced by RAND in support of these three PSN sites, which may also be helpful to others interested in violence prevention. Each presents a synopsis of analyses to date.

Data-Driven Homicide Prevention: An Examination of Five Project Safe Neighborhoods Target Areas — August 2005

Violent areas share some qualities but they are not all the same. An examination of the similarities and differences in homicide patterns of five communities throughout California known for their systemic violence demonstrates how such information can be tied to local homicide prevention initiatives.

Full Document

Homicide in the LASD Century Station Area: Developing Data-Driven Interventions — March 2005

In the Century Station area of the Los Angeles Sheriff Department, the homicide rate is about three times that for the Los Angeles area and about five times that for the nation. In 2003, homicides in the area increased by half the 2002 level. RAND Corporation researchers analyzed relevant crime data to suggest possible policy directions for the area's Project Safe Neighborhoods task force.

Full Document

Reducing Violence in Hayward, California: Learning from Homicides — December 2004

Before 1999, Hayward, California, typically had homicide rates lower than the national average. Since then, however, Hayward’s homicide rate has been higher than the national average and close to that of the Oakland area as a whole. The San Francisco Bay Area Project Safe Neighborhoods task force thus requested RAND's help in designing and implementing potential interventions for reducing violence in Hayward.

Full Document

Homicide in San Diego: A Case Study Analysis — March 2004

In San Diego, Project Safe Neighborhoods participants have focused their resources and efforts on the San Diego Police Department’s Southeast Division because of the high rate of gun crime in that area. As research partner to the Southern California district of Project Safe Neighborhoods, RAND was tasked with analyzing relevant crime data and suggesting possible policy directions for the working group.

Full Document

Violence in East and West Oakland: Description and Intervention — February 2004

California's homicide rate fell from 1993 until about 1999, but while the U.S. rate has since stayed level, California's started climbing. This trend is even more pronounced in urban areas such as Oakland, which as of 2002 had a homicide rate that was almost five times the national average. RAND has been working with the Oakland Police Department to collect data for use in examining violence and implementing interventions.

Full Document

Gun Violence in the LAPD 77th Street Area: Research Results and Policy Options — January 2004

To aid the Los Angeles Project Safe Neighborhoods task force in designing and implementing a gun-violence reduction strategy in the 77th Street area of the Los Angeles Police Department, RAND analyzed data on the 322 mostly gang-related homicides in the area from January 1998 through March 2003, interviewed local experts, including police officers, probation officers, and community representatives, and reviewed three potential interventions implemented elsewhere.

Full Document