Santa Ana Unit to Stalk Gangs, Suppress Crime

Warning gangs that they are not wanted within the city limits, Police Chief Paul M. Walters said Friday that he will create a special 17-member task force that will concentrate on gang-related crime.

The Violent Crime Suppression Task Force, which is designed to patrol five days a week, will almost triple the size of the current gang-control effort in Santa Ana, which is home to about 6,000 gang members, the highest concentration in the county. The task force has not determined which five days it will be in operation.

“We’re going to be relentless in tracking down gang members and bringing them to justice,” Walters said. “We’re going to use every legal means to keep them out of the streets.”

The task force, scheduled to begin operation next Friday, will consist of 10 officers, four gang investigators, two supervisors and one police service officer, said Lt. Robert Helton, a department spokesman.

Unit members will identify gang members as well as focus on those who commit violent crimes such as homicides, drive-by shootings and street robberies. Their primary area of responsibility will be the city’s central and southeast neighborhoods where most of the gang members live.

Although half its members will be reassigned to the task force, the city’s regular gang unit will continue to operate with four investigators, bringing the total number of officers committed to gang suppression to 21.

Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr. hailed the task force as a way for the city to deter gang members from committing violent crimes.

“The key word is suppression,” Pulido said. “It’s one thing to go to the scene and put out a fire. It’s another when you go out to a scene and suppress the fire before it gets started.”

The new division will be the first of its kind in Orange County, which had a record number of gang-related homicides last year--at least 28 out of 171 slayings. Santa Ana led the county with 15 gang-related killings.

“I think this is an excellent law-enforcement tool,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Brent Romney, head of the county’s gang-prosecution unit. “This will deter and slow down violent gang activity.”

Chief Probation Officer Michael Schumacher, whose department also has a gang-violence suppression unit, believes that Santa Ana has shown initiative by starting the task force.

“This will greatly benefit Santa Ana and Orange County in general,” Schumacher said. “It’s difficult for a city to carve manpower out of existing budgets for specialized duties. But in this case, it is needed.”

In its 1990-91 budget, Santa Ana already has emphasized a beefed-up police force that added four investigators to its gang unit.

Helton said the task force differs from its previous program of weekend sweeps that targeted neighborhoods known for gang violence. The new unit will have a permanent set of officers who will work daily on gang patrols.