County Hopes to Curtail Gangs by Involving Parents

Orange County will launch a unique pilot program next week aimed at reducing gang activity by involving the parents of potential gang members as young as 10 years.

Most existing state and local programs aimed at the burgeoning gang problem are focused on the gang members or the children who might join gangs, county officials say. The theory behind the county’s new plan is that gangs have flourished because the youths lack support or discipline in their homes.

“The vast majority of parents are ignorant (about their children’s behavior),” said Tom Wright, who is directing the experimental program from the county Probation Department. “If they are aware of it, then we (can) have a unified effort, and the theory is that gangs will start diminishing.”

Michael Schumacher, the county’s chief probation officer, noted that law enforcement already makes an effort to suppress gang activity itself. But, he said, “there isn’t very much . . . going on with the community, which is up in arms (over gangs).

“We thought we would organize these parent groups. In the long run, it’s the only real solution to the gang problem.”

Wright and other probation officers will begin meeting next week with city, police and school officials in Santa Ana to discuss the program, which is being funded with a $60,000 grant from the state office of criminal justice planning.

By next summer, he said the county team also hopes to be operating the program in Anaheim, Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Orange and Westminster.

Wright said the children they are concerned with are those between the ages of 10 and 14.

“That’s when they start realizing there’s a gang there and they start identifying with it. By the time they leave junior high, they’ve decided if they’re in or out,” said Wright, who heads a special Probation Department unit that monitors convicted criminals who are identified as gang members. He said the average age of those gang members is 16.

The team plans to reach families through various parent-teacher organizations in area elementary schools.

At first, the meetings will seek to educate parents about behavior that might indicate that their child is intrigued by gang life, county officials said. Then, for those parents who have seen the warning signs, follow-up meetings will be held to explain what can be done to redirect the child.

At the same time, county officers also will meet with schoolteachers to alert them to the same warning signs.

Wright said they hope that teachers and school officials will help identify potential gang members “so we can go to the parents and say, ‘We think you are about to have a problem with your kid.’ ”

The warning signs include graffiti in a child’s bedroom or on his or her schoolwork, wearing of certain colors, staying out late, an incorrigible attitude at home or trouble in school.

Wright said they will teach parents to take action with such children, rather than ignore the signs. He said parents have to be willing to strictly enforce a curfew and be ready to retrieve a child who breaks the rule--and they should be willing to search a child’s room for drugs.

“We supervise 150 gang members (in the Probation Department), and most of those parents are intimidated by their kids,” he said. “Family intervention is a proven theory.”

Eventually, Wright said, the county hopes to establish task forces in each community that will be able to continue the same training without county assistance. Those task forces--made up of parents, teachers and local police--can later be used to help implement future anti-gang programs, he said.

Officials estimate that there are about 83 gangs in Orange County with about 6,000 members. That is an increase from about 24 gangs with about 2,000 members just 10 years ago, Wright said.

In Los Angeles, where gang violence has drawn national attention, there are about 600 gangs with 60,000 members, Wright said. Los Angeles also averages about one gang-related homicide per day, while Orange County’s average is about one per month, he said.

State officials said about half a dozen other counties also are launching programs aimed at organizing the community against gangs. Some counties are preparing videos to educate the communities about gangs, and one has set up an anonymous tape-recorded message center to generate police tips about gangs from people worried about retribution.