ANAHEIM : Hiring Approved for 2 Anti-Gang Officers

After hearing that the city’s gang problem has increased substantially in recent years, the City Council voted to spend about $180,000 in federal grant money to hire two police officers who will specialize in gang crime.

“Where Los Angeles was a few years ago, Santa Ana is now, and Anaheim soon could be,” Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said this week.

Lee Smith, the only Anaheim police officer assigned exclusively to gang crimes, said Anaheim’s gangs have increased in the last five years from eight to 35, and gang membership has risen from 160 to 500.

Smith outlined areas of the city where gang concentration is heaviest and said gangs from neighboring cities form alliances with Anaheim gangs.

Molloy told the council that police need more gang officers but that other city departments can help reduce gang problems with code enforcement and community services counseling.

“I’m not going to tell anybody that the Police Department can solve all these problems, because it can’t,” Molloy said.

However, some residents said the city needs to do more than spend grant money. East Anaheim resident Doug Gibson told the council that his neighborhood is not considered one of the city’s four gang target areas, “so those two officers would not be able to provide regular protection in that area.”

Last year, the department added 18 new officers. However, just five of them are paid with city money, with salaries for the rest coming from funds built up from asset seizures in drug cases and from federal grants.

The council may allow the department to hire the two new anti-gang officers before federal grants become available in July.