Sweeps Credited With Scaring Off Santa Ana Gangs

Gang crime in Santa Ana has dropped dramatically since local authorities launched a massive counterattack built around controversial neighborhood gang sweeps, according to police figures released Wednesday.

In the four months since the sweeps began, the figures show, major gang crimes have dropped 40% when compared to the previous four months. Compared to the same period in 1989, gang crime showed a decline of 34%.

“I think the gangs are lying low right now,” said Police Chief Paul M. Walters, who initiated the sweeps. “They still exist here, but the word has spread like crazy that we’re out there watching them.”

The department’s unprecedented attack on gangs, coordinated with several county agencies, was initiated in late April after a rash of drive-by shootings in and around Santa Ana helped make 1990 the county’s bloodiest on record for gang homicides. So far this year, there have been at least 18 gang-related homicides.

In Santa Ana alone, there were 104 violent gang crimes--including 11 homicides--during the first four months of this year, Police Department records show. From May through August, however, police reported 62 violent gang crimes, only one of which was a homicide.

“This is one more example of what can be accomplished when a number of diverse agencies work together . . . ,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi said. “It reflects, I think, a much more effective effort on the streets.”

Walters and Capizzi appeared together Wednesday during a brief ceremony before the Board of Supervisors. The statistics were unveiled by Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, whose district includes Santa Ana and parts of Garden Grove and Westminster, the three Orange County cities with the most gang activity.

Walters said in an interview that he believes that the drop in gang crime shows that the sweeps have “scared off” some of the city’s most active gang members. But he said his department will nevertheless continue the weekend sweeps indefinitely.

Anthony Borbon, director for the county’s community service’s gang program, cautioned that such crime statistics can fluctuate for a variety of reasons but said he found the figures encouraging. Borbon stressed, however, that the county needs to show as much of a commitment to prevention as it has to making arrests.

“Let’s make sure we’re going to create the programs that encourage children not to get into that type of activity,” Borbon advised.

The police sweeps were announced late last April, only days after a particularly violent weekend that left two teen-agers dead and two other youngsters, including an 8-year-old boy, seriously wounded.

As part of the stepped-up effort, Walters also doubled the size of the department’s gang detail--Santa Ana is the only city in the county with a formal gang division--from four investigators to eight. An additional 14 officers also now work on a part-time basis for the unit, police officials said.

The weekend sweeps, in which police heavily patrol neighborhoods where gang activity is considered most active, were modeled after similar patrols in Los Angeles. They have been been criticized by legal-rights advocates who say that such police action violates the constitutional rights of those who live in the area.

But Michael Salgado, a member of the Mayor’s Task Force on Neighborhood Policing and the founder of Parents Against a Gang Environment, said the patrols have been welcomed by residents. Salgado, who lives in an eastside neighborhood of Santa Ana, said gang members are now less brazen and tend not to cluster in groups. There’s even less graffiti, Salgado added.

“Nobody could pressure the gangs like the police did,” Salgado said. “The police went all out, and they have been doing a great job.”

But Salgado said he is concerned that the gangs may be moving to other cities that do not have specific police operations against them.

“They could lie low and come back,” Salgado said.

Santa Ana Police Sgt. Robert Sayne, who heads the department’s gang unit, said he believes that the sweeps have proved more successful here than in Los Angeles because the gang problem is not yet “out of control.”

While the Santa Ana gang problem is serious, officials say, it pales in comparison to that encountered by Los Angeles authorities. Santa Ana is believed to have about 7,000 gang members who belong to more than 60 gangs.

Los Angeles County authorities, by comparison, have identified in their computer files about 71,000 gang members and more than 700 gangs. Sayne said he believes that police officials here may have acted just in time.

“With what was occurring the first few months of the year, we didn’t know where it was going,” Sayne said. “Without applying the manpower, who knows where it would go?”

Santa Ana Gang Crimes* Prompted by a spree of drive-by shootings in April, Santa Ana police began conducting weekend sweeps that have since cut gang crime by 40% compared to the first four months of this year. While 1990 remains a record year for gang homicides in both Santa Ana and Orange County, crime in the city is down 34% over the last four months compared to the same period last year. 1989 Jan: 4 Feb: 11 Mar: 14 Apr: 18 May: 17 June: 21 July: 31 Aug: 26 1990 Jan: 18 Feb: 12 Mar: 48 Apr: 26 May: 10 June: 28 July: 11 Aug: 13 *Homicide, felony assault, misdemeanor assault, shooting at an occupied house, shooting at an unoccupied vehicle. Source: Sgt. Robert Sayne, Santa Ana Police Department