LOCAL : 4 More on S.A. Police Gang Unit

Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters announced today that he will add four more officers to the city’s police gang detail, doubling the size of its team in the aftermath of last weekend’s shootings that left two teen-agers dead and an 8-year-old seriously injured.

The four additional officers primarily will be in charge of patrolling gang territory, rather than investigating cases, Walters said in an interview. The other four will continue to concentrate specifically on investigating cases. The city has an estimated 60 gangs with 7,000 gang members, he said.

“The officers will be out on the street to suppress any gang-related activities,” Walters said.

The new officers most likely will join the gang detail within two months, in time for the summer, when children are no longer under school supervision, Walters said. The overall cost of adding the officers will be about $300,000 a year.

The Police Department was planning to add the officers onto its gang detail quietly this year, even before last weekend’s shootings, Walters said. But Walters said he decided to announce it publicly because of the media attention brought on by the gang shootings.

Santa Ana has had eight gang-related slayings this year, making up half of the county’s 16 gang-related homicides so far. Last year, there were 16 gang-related killings in the county overall.