Gang Crime Rise Spurs Pico Rivera to Hire Specialists

The City Council, in response to dramatic increases in gang-related crimes during the first three months of the year, has tentatively approved spending $127,000 to hire two specialists in curbing gang activity.

Law enforcement officers said the council action is timely, and they have the statistics to prove it. From January through March of this year, gang activity included four homicides, 44 assaults with a deadly weapon, 20 robberies and two kidnapings. Police made 393 arrests of gang members.

By comparison, during the same period last year, there were no homicides, 21 assaults with a deadly weapon, nine robberies and no kidnapings. Police arrests of gang members have soared 101% over last year’s totals, when 196 were arrested for January through March.

There are other signs that a gang onslaught is spreading through Pico Rivera: a slash of spray paint on a garbage can near Rivera Village, initials etched into the glass of a vacant storefront that used to be a pizza parlor, a lineup of painted scrawls across a stone wall south of Slauson Avenue, just west of the 605 Freeway.

Sgt. Jim Johnson, who heads the gang unit at the Pico Rivera sheriff’s station, estimates that there are 700 active gang members in his jurisdiction. Many belong to 11 gangs his unit has targeted as the most troublesome.

In response, the City Council last week tentatively approved spending a total of $127,000 to pay for two full-time specialists whose assignment is to curb gang activity and recruitment.

Mayor Alberto Natividad said the council wanted to respond to a deteriorating situation. “I believe gang activity has been increasing since early fall,” he said. “More residents are calling and complaining about groups of gang members loitering. Many of us have noticed an increase in graffiti.”

The council’s plan pays for two positions. One person will work directly for the city. The job will be to galvanize the community’s response to the area’s Latino gangs.

“Gangs are a community problem and it takes a community-wide effort to deal with them,” City Manager Dennis Courtemarche said. “Eventually this person would spend the bulk of his time with youth groups and organizations that deal with youth groups.

“This person has to be someone who is aware of where the gangs are and what they do. We have not defined the duties specifically yet.”

The rest of the funding will be used to expand a local program administered by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. At present, Pico Rivera pays for one-fourth of a deputy’s time as a community relations officer. The council proposal will enlarge this position to full-time status.

“I love it,” Sheriff’s Deputy John McQuay said of the idea. Even in a part-time capacity, McQuay has visited every Pico Rivera elementary school. With a lecture and a videotape portraying what happens to gang members, “I show them the pitfalls of becoming active in gangs.”

Courtemarche foresees McQuay or another deputy reaching beyond the schools to communicate with the city’s 130 Neighborhood Watch groups and with parents. “We want to educate parents on how to deal with kids who want to join gangs and who belong to gangs,” he said.

After three relatively quiet years, he said, “There’s been a lot of recruiting. It’s become the ‘in’ thing again.”

Deputy McQuay likened the gang recruitment to an arms race. “It’s like, ‘If they build up, we build up.’ ”

Because gang members often frequent Pico Rivera’s parks, Bill Kent sees the ebb and flow of gang membership from a front-row seat. The director of recreation and community services, Kent helped write the recommendations that the council adopted.

His report also included other ideas: developing community and professional task forces, reinforcing city efforts to remove all graffiti within a 24-hour period (already a city goal), establishing a common gang-reduction master plan with neighboring cities, proclaiming a citywide zero tolerance policy on gangs and drug use, and promoting activities that develop pride and self-esteem in potential gang members.

Despite an unfulfilled wish list, Kent, a 15-year city employee, is pleased because the council action “dealt with a long-term need to get in place a strong and permanent preventive program.”

“In the long run,” he said, “it will make a dent.”

Pico Rivera has done “a good job at suppression,” said Courtemarche. “We need to do more in the preventive area.”

THE RISE OF GANG ACTIVITY IN PICO RIVERA

Percentage January through March 1989 1990 of Increase Homicides 0 4 -- Assaults with deadly weapon 21 44 109 Shots fired into homes 3 7 133 Battery on police officers 1 5 400 Arson fires 1 3 200 Robberies 9 20 122 Kidnapings 0 2 -- Gang-member arrests 196 393 101

Source: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department