City of Los Angeles
Community Law Enforcement and Recovery Program (CLEAR)
The mission of the CLEAR program is to use coordinated law enforcement and community engagement to help recover quality of life in communities that are highly impacted by gang violence. The CLEAR program works collaboratively across large city and county agencies – including Los Angeles police, sheriff, city attorney, district attorney, probation and parole – and with community members and local, youth-serving agencies such as nonprofits, schools and churches. CLEAR is also a partner with the Mayor’s citywide Gang Reduction and Youth Development program.
Services
Need
Since 1996, the CLEAR program has relied on Harder+Company’s Los Angeles office (formerly Lodestar) to develop systems for program development and assessment, as well as to evaluate the results of its activities in over a dozen communities.
What We Did
Over the past twelve years, our services to CLEAR have developed in response to a maturing program. Early services involved tracking gang crime statistics and helping the Executive Committee to articulate the model’s mission, structure and essential program elements. A supplementary contract with the California Board of Corrections permitted a broad examination of the operations and outcomes associated with CLEAR’s first three program sites. We created a statistical model for measuring gang crime reduction and a tool for sites to self-assess their progress on the model’s 28 essential elements. Most recently, Harder+Company has been engaged in historical documentation and evaluating the program’s impact from the viewpoint of key community stakeholders.
Results
Our reports and other products have been used by the CLEAR Executive Committee for policy, communication, program improvement and fundraising purposes. These products include standard and ad hoc data reports, presentation elements for professional conferences and local brochures describing the program to community members. Other work has helped coordinate CLEAR activities with those of the comprehensive Gang Reduction and Youth Development program, helping CLEAR to fulfill critical components of its broad community-based mission.
For more information on Harder + Company, please contact us at 415-522-5400.
Community events are one way the CLEAR program connects with gang prevention and intervention efforts.
“
Harder+Company has been an invaluable resource to the CLEAR Program and its Executive Committee. They have consistently kept us appraised of the program’s performance and have been exceedingly responsive to requests for data or information.”
—Gary F. Hearnsberger, Head Deputy and CLEAR Chair
