Supervisors OK anti-gang pilot program

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday approved a multiagency pilot program to combat gang activity in four targeted communities -- Duarte-Monrovia, Florence-Firestone, Harbor Gateway and Pacoima.

County Chief Executive Officer William T. Fujioka and Sheriff Lee Baca said the plan focuses on improving coordination of services, such as law enforcement, probation and social services, for at-risk youth in those areas. If the pilot program succeeds, it could be expanded countywide.

“We’re looking at some exciting opportunities to do things differently,” Baca told the board.

The overhaul was spurred by the release of a scathing report in January 2007 by the Advancement Project, an L.A. public policy nonprofit. The report, commissioned by the city, called for a massive, regional effort to fight gang culture within neighborhoods.

“A good step forward,” project director Connie Rice said Tuesday of the pilot program. But she quickly added: “It was way too long in coming.”

“Whether there’s anything good that comes out of it will depend mightily on whether Bill Fujioka can get across that this isn’t just about cobbling together existing programs -- it’s about changing how the county works,” Rice said.

Indeed, the new pilot program remains sketchy, even after 18 months of delays and political wrangling.

Fujioka and Deputy Chief Executive Doyle Campbell provided few details Tuesday about how it will work or how much it will cost. The new program will be paid for with money already budgeted for anti-gang efforts, but Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said any comprehensive approach would require additional money.

“If we are as serious as we claim to be, it will require an investment,” Ridley-Thomas said.

According to a July 2007 report, the county spent $105 million annually on anti-gang efforts. Supervisors requested an update last June, but Fujioka postponed a new cost survey, even after he received supervisors’ approval and hired a county analyst, who will be paid $97,000 to $127,000 a year, to work on the strategy.

In approving the new plan Tuesday, supervisors ordered that no resources or services be redirected from other county neighborhoods to support it.

Supervisors directed the county auditor to review spending on gang intervention, prevention and suppression countywide and to report back in four months.

The board also ordered Fujioka to assemble a committee to closely examine the four targeted neighborhoods and report back in six months with detailed proposals for how to improve the coordination and accountability of anti-gang programs.

Fujioka had initially wanted to limit the plan to Florence-Firestone, base of operations for the rival Florencia 13 and East Coast Crips gangs, and Pacoima, where an injunction has been issued against the Pacoima Project Boys.

Fujioka said he chose the two neighborhoods because it would show how the new strategy can work in gang-plagued neighborhoods and those areas where gangs are at a tipping point. Also, they are located near two of the dozen “gang- reduction zones” targeted by the city of Los Angeles, neighborhoods where gang violence is four times the citywide average. Supervisor Don Knabe lobbied hard for Harbor-Gateway in his district, where residents have been clamoring for help since 14-year-old Cheryl Green was shot to death three years ago by alleged members of the 204th Street gang.

Supervisor Michael Antonovich proposed adding Duarte-Monrovia in his district, which saw a spate of gang-related shootings last year and is at a tipping point similar to Pacoima, Baca said.

Neither Duarte-Monrovia nor Harbor-Gateway is near city gang-reduction zones.

L.A. Deputy Mayor Jeff Carr, who served on the committee that designed the county plan, urged the county to start small. But Carr said the expanded pilot program is still “good news for kids and families in these targeted areas.”

“There are cities and counties all over the state who are looking at what we are doing,” Carr said. “We have been known as the gang capital of the country. Maybe as we move forward we can be known for coming up with unique solutions.”

For more information on the anti-gang pilot program, visit https://file.lacounty.gov/ bos/supdocs/46777.pdf.

--

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com