The Oakland Police Department is beginning a new campaign to fight violent crime which doesn’t involve city government or the use of city funds. In fact, it is being spearheaded by a former Oakland police officer who's been dead for years.

On the streets of East Oakland officers drive past gang graffiti and shrines to the victims of gang violence while responding to a call for help

"There's a lot of good righteous citizens that live here who care about their properties and stuff of that nature but in the midst of this we have some gang activity," said Sgt. Arturo Bautista of the Oakland Police Department.

It can be a tough place to live especially for children. "You see this kid here, right? Good kid. I bet if I go up to him and wave to him he'll wave back, right? But he lives in an area that if the parents aren't careful, he's gonna be around schoolmates or other kids who are involved in illegal activity," Bautista said.

At St. Bernard Catholic Church, ex-gang members are talking to students as young as 12-years-old. These are the kids gang members will soon try to recruit. Parish priests have seen that happen.

"They're in these neighborhoods that are just infested by gangs. They have to celebrate funerals of young people that have been shot down because of gang violence," said Bishop Salvatore Cordelione of the Oakland Diocese office.

Anthony Del Toro is a former gang member who now works for California Youth Outreach. He recently showed kids and their parents how to avoid the gang life.

"I always told my mom and my dad you're crazy. I'm not like them, I'm smarter than them,” Del Toro said. “And I think I was. But I was doing the same stupid things they were doing so what good was it me being smarter if I'm doing the same stupid things.”.

Funding for this program comes largely from the donation of one former Oakland Police Officer Harold Kerrison.  Kerrison retired from OPD in 1951 and invested in Napa Valley Real Estate. When he died in 1997, he had no heirs so he left his estate worth $1.3 million dollars to the Oakland Police Foundation.

"It was a great thing for him to do and it's the heart of this organization. It keeps us functioning," said Greg Brown chairman of the Oakland Police Foundation.

It was only recently the citizen run foundation started putting that money to use to fund programs that never existed or were slashed by budget cuts.

For instance, Mia is a police K-9 paid for with foundation money.  In the few weeks she's been on the job, she's already earned her keep by catching two burglary suspects.

"She located one and when she alerted he gave up. She located the second one and alerted and he didn't give up so he ended up getting bit, and then he gave up," said Diane Ward, Oakland police K-9 Officer.

Money has also been used to upgrade new headsets at Oakland's Dispatch Center. The old headsets kept breaking down.

"It would be a lot of static sometimes. A lot of background noise. A lot of feedback,”said Oakland Police Communication Dispatcher, Olivia Mui. “So it'd make it difficult for them to understand us and for us to understand them which isn't very good in a life or death emergency.”

In 2009, four Oakland officers were killed after a traffic stop led to a shootout.  The foundation paid for new bullet resistant shields for patrol officers.

And this all came from a man who left the force more than a half century ago and most officers have never heard of.

"He did a great thing for the city that he loved and the department that he loved," Greg Brown said.