CRIMINAL activity is often motivated by the desire for financial rewards. Recognising this, a Californian town has opted for a controversial plan to pay would-be criminals not to engage in illegal conduct.

Richmond, located in the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay area has been quietly implementing a program that identifies the worst troublemakers in the community and pays them a monthly stipend to behave themselves.

The unorthodox plan may sound crazy, but it has been producing positive results for nearly five years.

The success of the city’s program which is carried out by the Office of Neighbourhood Safety (ONS) who work alongside police, was detailed in the latest episode of Chicago public radio’s, This American Life.

Richmond was once one of the country’s most dangerous towns as gun violence reached uncontrollable levels in 2009. With authorities on the brink of despair, they sought outside counsel on ways to curb the violence.

It was this that led Devone Boggan to establish the ONS and it was one key piece of information that caused him to implement his controversial strategy. Upon learning that 70 per cent of the homicides and firearm assaults in 2009 were directly linked to just 17 people, Boggan had an epiphany.

“I thought, ‘Wow, if we can wrap our arms around that and just engage the 17 people in a different way, that could have a significant impact on the narrative of what’s really going on in the city of Richmond,” he told Al Jazeera last year.

He thought if he could inoculate the most violent, the flow on effects would make the community safer and change the general attitude towards the authorities.

Boggan sent his staff out to find those men and offer them a deal. The ONS would pay them a stipend and help them with basic goals like getting a driver’s license and obtaining health care in exchange for their good behaviour. The program also implemented a strong focus on conflict-resolution counselling.

Over an 18-month period, ONS participants receive anywhere from US$300 to $1,000 per month, depending on their progress following a “life map” of personal goals.

“I was just surviving, doing what I had to do to survive. And when they came along, they gave me a path” said ONS participant D’vondre Woodards in a documentary released last month.

In the beginning it took a lot of convincing from ONS workers but once word spread it became easier to recruit the young men into the program — although the amount of money they receive has lessened. And once they’re in, it’s all about breaking the cycle of anti-social behaviour. Something which former ONS fellow Rasheed Shaepard was able to do.

“What’s hard is being in the streets every night trying to fool the police ... Once you get onto the straight, walking that straight line, that’s easy. It’s a straight line, you know,” he said.

It may be a radical approach to rely more heavily on the carrot than the stick, but the results are beginning to speak for themselves as crime is down in the city and the murder rate has dropped by over two thirds.

In 2013, Richmond saw its lowest number of homicides in 33 years with a total of 16. Last year, that number dropped to a new recorded low of 11 which is a far cry from the recorded high of 62 in 1990.

While community members believe it is due to a number of factors including a steady increase in employment, they attribute a lot of the city’s reduction in crime to the Office of Neighbourhood Safety.

But despite the results, the morally questionable idea of paying criminals a financial advance is not without its opponents.

One of those outspoken critics is former Richmond city councilman, Courtland “Corky” Booze, who once helped integrate the sport of legalised drag racing into the community. He has repeatedly called for concrete proof that the program works and amid demands for an audit of the office, reportedly said he wanted to bring the ONS “to their knees.”

“White folks like to pat black folks on the head, give ‘em a few bucks, and think that their problems will go away. It never happens,” the eccentric councilman told Mother Jones.

The ONS typically operates on a yearly budget of around $1.2 million (as well as private donations).

Paying criminals not to engage in anti-social behaviour may be akin to putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. But for now, it’s helping to stop the blood.