City and County Take Aim at Gangs : Crime: Westminster officers and a county prosecutor and probation officer will team up in what may be the first such unit in the state.

The City Council has given preliminary approval to a plan to create a multi-agency, gang-suppression unit that would team city police with a county prosecutor to combat a sharp increase in gang activity.

The unit, which city officials said would be the first of its kind in the state, would team two city police officers with a deputy district attorney and a county probation officer and would operate out of an office at the city’s Police Department.

The program, proposed by Westminster Police Chief James Cook, would cost $450,000 annually and could start as early as Jan. 1. Funding will be provided by the city and the county, but city officials said Westminster would bear the brunt of the costs under a yet-to-be determined formula.

Although similar programs exist that combine police with the district attorney’s office or the county Probation Department, Cook said Westminster’s program “would be the first time that all three were brought together under one roof.”

“This moves the gang warfare up one more notch,” Cook said. “We’re really serious about reducing gang crime.”

Cook said his department has been working on the program for two years, but its efforts were speeded up after a motorist was slain by gang members last month. Janet L. Bicknell was driving to her home on Forrest Lane on the night of Aug. 5 when she was fatally shot in the head by a group of teen-age gang members who were drinking beer in a city park.

“That homicide prompted us to step up our time schedule,” the police chief said.

Both Cook and Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi said before the council meeting Tuesday that the program would result in swifter prosecution and longer jail sentences for gang members. The gang unit, they said, will vigorously employ the new Street Terrorism Act to buttress enforcement efforts.

“It’s just a concentrated effort directed right at street hoodlums who are violating the law,” Capizzi said.

Under the state-approved Street Terrorism Act that went into effect last year, members of street gangs can be prosecuted on an additional charge of gang membership when arrested on suspicion of a gang-related crime. For the charge to be added, the gang must have been involved in two other felonies within three years.

In a report to the council, Cook said a full-time gang prosecutor is essential because 63 gangs are now based or active in the city.

“With the (deputy district attorney) housed in the Police Department as part of the team, each case involving a gang member will receive individual attention by one prosecutor from start to finish,” he wrote.

The district attorney’s gang prosecutors now handle only cases that are gang-motivated, but the prosecutor attached to the new city unit would pursue any case involving a gang member, regardless of whether the crime is gang-motivated, Cook said.

Two new police officer positions will be created for the program, Cook said, with one specializing in Asian gangs and the other Latino gangs.

Micheal Schumacher, chief probation officer of Orange County, said Wednesday that the new unit would allow for “more monitoring (by the Probation Department) of where (gang members) go and what they do.”

“It would certainly mean a much safer community for everyone,” Schumacher said.

Officials from the police, district attorney’s office and Probation Department are still discussing budget details, but the city will staff and equip the special unit with money from the regional narcotics forfeiture fund, which seizes assets of persons convicted on drug charges, the police chief said.

The police chief and mayor of Westminster should be commended for initiating the multi-agency, gang-suppression team, Capizzi said.

“We’re very enthused about it,” the district attorney said. “I think it has great, great potential. We’re going to evaluate very, very closely, and if it meets our expectations, I hope that other cities would want to do something similar.”