OAKLAND -- A nationally recognized violence prevention program that has had some success at reducing crime in Chicago, Boston and Cincinnati has launched in Oakland. The program, called Operation Ceasefire, is the result of several months of collaborative work between Oakland law enforcement agencies and the California Partnership for Safe Communities.

Expectations are running high for the pilot program that launched Thursday in East Oakland. Oakland's Operation Ceasefire is funded by a two-year, $95,000 contract, and the Department of Human Services provided a grant in July to fund a full-time project manager to oversee its debut.

"This is the only program where we have a chance to remove violent offenders in a positive way," said Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan. "It's not to lock them up, but to offer them choices."

Ceasefire's underlying assumption is that only a few individuals cause the vast majority of community violence. Stopping those people -- and the groups to which they belong -- before they kill, can alter the trajectory of an entire city.

Ceasefire works on a carrot-and-stick principle, using both the promise of employment opportunity and support as well as the threat of incarceration as tools to wean society's most violent troublemakers away from the streets and into the bosom of their communities. In theory, law enforcement officers, including police, probation and parole, work closely with community activists

like pastors and teachers, as well as ordinary citizens, to rein in the individuals who are causing the most violence.

When done right, the results can be dramatic and compelling. A Ceasefire approach was used in Boston at the height of the crack epidemic in the mid-1990s and was credited with a more than 60 percent reduction in homicides. The experiment came to be known as the "Boston Miracle" and it cemented Ceasefire's reputation as a program that works. Other cities followed suit, some successfully, some not.

Oakland made a halfhearted attempt to implement Ceasefire in 2008, but failed to adequately pursue the "stick" end of the approach, and so the program fizzled and eventually died. But now, say Jordan and a host of others who have been working on the program since last year, the city has its priorities straight.

"The first time we tried, we didn't have the time and attention to get it right," said Regan Harmon, Oakland's senior policy adviser for public safety, who has been managing the implementation. "In cities like Oakland that don't have a lot of money, resources and with competing needs, you need something like this to get people focused around strategies that have been proven. The technical assistance has been so helpful."

There are several different Ceasefire models at work around the country. The one Oakland chose has three main tacks, all with the specific goal of reducing homicides and shootings. An ancillary goal is to reduce recidivism among parolees and probationers. Police and city officials have been meeting with community members regularly for weeks now. The first element is the "call-in," where it becomes mandatory for violent offenders on probation or parole to attend a meeting called by law enforcement. Law enforcement reminds them of the serious consequences, namely increased police attention and ultimately arrest and prison, should they not cooperate.

If the targeted individuals aren't on parole or probation, the Ceasefire advocates do what's called a "custom notification," which is a one-on-one visit with people deemed to be particularly damaging to the community. The third component involves "night walks" where community activists and law enforcement literally walk through neighborhoods engaging certain individuals in specific discussions about their opportunities and the consequences if they fail to act.

"This is about communication with them; we're working with them," Harmon said. "The assistance we have, all that will be offered, but that's not a requirement; the only requirement we have is that they stop shooting."

Staff from the California Partnership for Safe Communities spent months analyzing 2012 crime data provided by the Oakland Police Department to decide which parts of Oakland would be best served by the Ceasefire program. For a long time, police and city officials conceded, critical crime data has been available but hasn't been properly used or analyzed.

Chief Jordan, a staunch Ceasefire supporter, was surprised by some of the findings of the recent analysis.

"I learned that there are 14 active groups operating out of East Oakland, in a small area, and they're all aligned around the same thing, violence against each other, for whatever reason," he said. "I knew we had loose-knit groups, but I didn't realize it was so concentrated in one area." If the program is successful in East Oakland, Jordan said it will be expanded to include West Oakland.

What's less clear is how to measure success. Mayor Jean Quan said she is cautiously optimistic about Ceasefire, but admits that no plan should be seen as a panacea for Oakland's chronic violence problem. Oakland eclipsed 100 homicides last week, the second straight year the city has reached that mark.

"I want to stop the shootings in Oakland," she said. "But with murder rates climbing across the Bay Area, it's hard to separate Oakland out of it. If we can keep the murder rate flat or reduce it, I'll take what I can get. Every one of these lives is a young person."

But Harmon and Jordan say a qualitative analysis will eventually be required, and that could cost an additional $75,000 to $200,000, according to a Harvard researcher who consulted with the city of Oakland. And even if the murder rate declines in the short term, any real success will have to be measured by whether the pattern can sustain itself.