COUNTYWIDE : Anti-Gang Agency Would Cover 3 Cities

The outlines of a regional anti-gang agency within the county are taking shape, with a bill authorizing its creation set for introduction in the Legislature next month.

Following a Sept. 16 drive-by shooting in Garden Grove which killed two people and injured six others, Garden Grove Councilman Frank Kessler proposed that the cities of Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Westminster pool resources.

Assembly Bill 304 would authorize and fund the multicity agency, said Samuel A. Roth, an aide to Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress). Allen expects to introduce it in early January, he said.

“There is a desperate, desperate need for this kind of commitment of resources toward the gang problem,” Garden Grove Police Chief John R. Robertson said. While conflicts between Santa Ana-based Hispanic gangs are blamed for the Sept. 16 shooting, all three cities have growing problems with Asian gangs, as well.

Robertson estimates that the agency, similar to a drug-suppression agency established 5 years ago, would cost about $1 million annually, and require a staff of 18.

“The three chiefs (of police) have met and discussed this,” he said. “We’re working with Doris Allen’s office to identify funding sources.”

Robertson said the chiefs envision better coordination between the three cities’ gang details, and also with county, state and federal law enforcement agencies. A key part of the effort would involve creating a computer data base and system to track gang members and activities.

“We’d hope to go statewide with the computer data base. It would allow us to do more joint investigations,” Robertson said.

“We’re trying to create a bottom-up approach,” Roth said. “Nobody knows the gang problem as well as the local police departments do.”

Robertson cautioned that there “is no guarantee of funding.” But if the agency was created, he said, it “would be a dream come true.”