D.A. Gets State Grant to Fight Youth Gangs

The San Diego County district attorney’s office has won a $1-million state grant to combat youth gangs.

Spokeswoman Linda Miller said Friday that the grant, awarded by the state’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning, will permit the formation of a task force with representatives from the district attorney’s office, the Sheriff’s Department, the county Probation Department and the police departments in San Diego and National City.

The task force will target areas with high concentrations of gang activity, and the grant monies will be used to open an office and purchase equipment and vehicles.

“Many of the youth gangs have grown more sophisticated in their organization and have developed into small, organized crime cartels which sell and distribute drugs,” Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller said. “We needed an equally sophisticated task force to battle this dangerous activity.”

The task force will develop comprehensive profiles on each youth arrested in connection with gang activity, including photos, fingerprints and previous convictions, authorities said. That information will be made available to law enforcement agencies throughout the county.

Since the 1970s, street youth gangs have escalated dramatically in the region, officials with the district attorney’s office said. In 1975, police estimated there were three gangs and fewer than 300 gang members. Today, in the City of San Diego alone, police estimate there are more than 2,100 gang members in 19 primary gangs. Counting associated factions, there are 35 gangs within the San Diego city limits.

The Sheriff’s Department reports there are about 200 gang members within its jurisdiction. Arrests of gang members in the sheriff’s jurisdiction have been primarily for narcotics violations.

Police say that, by engaging in the lucrative rock cocaine trade, many young gang members have been able to purchase expensive automobiles and arm themselves with Uzi submachine guns and assault rifles.

“One reason for the increase of drug sales and distribution by juveniles is that most gang members know a minor will receive, at most, a sentence of a few days on a county work project, rather than the mandatory state prison faced by an adult for the same drug-related offense,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Davidson, who will oversee the task force. “We have to step in early, and as hard as necessary, to show them this is the wrong path.”