SALINAS, Calif. -- While Salinas Police officers are seeing an uptick in gang violence, they said that wasn't always the case when there was sufficient funding for gang prevention programs.
In 2009, the city hit its peak for homicides -- 29. A year later, it started Cease Fire, a gang prevention program modeled after cities like Stockton.
A year later, there were 14 fewer murders on the streets of Salinas.
"The figures do show that when we had the Cease Fire program, the crime statistics showed significant decrease, so it definitely worked," said Officer Miguel Cabrera of the Salinas Police Department.
Cease Fire was able to happen because the state and federal government invested heavily in making it happen.
But by 2011, Cease Fire had lost its main backers and with that went the resources to target the most violent gang members, not only getting them jobs but forcing a truce between gangs.
In 2012, there were 22 murders in Salinas, something Officer Cabrera said he hopes the city can get under control again.
"That's the ultimate goal, but it's going to take a lot of work," Officer Cabrera said.
Another big effort in the city is CASP, Community Alliance On Safety and Peace, which is designed to prevent kids from joining gangs and intervening in the lives of the ones that have already joined.
"The program was designed for the four officers, so it is difficult to achieve the goals that we had at the beginning of the program when you only have two officers," Officer Cabrera said.
The city is pushing to maintain that federal and state partnership and push for more funding.
Salinas saw the lowest murder rates in the last 20 years of 7 in 2005 and 2006. Police credit money it had at the time to target the gang issue.
