Notifications of Gang Ties to Continue : Youth: The response to warning letters sent to parents was sparse. But the sheriff plans a second mailing.

Despite receiving almost no response during the first phase of a new anti-gang program, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department has decided to continue mailing warning letters to the families of teen-agers involved with street gangs.

Officers received only two responses after mailing 50 letters to families of hard-core gang members across the county. Nonetheless, sheriff’s officials still plan to start mailing a second batch of 250 letters in early December.

Several Latino advocacy groups have said the letter campaigns are discriminatory and a waste of time, but Lt. Bill Edwards, coordinator of the sheriff’s gang task force, remains undeterred.

“The whole point of this is to notify the parents and get them involved,” Edwards said. “Hopefully they can exercise some control over their kids as far as what they are doing and who they are hanging around with.”

Edwards said he did not expect many responses from letters mailed to the hard-core gang members, but he is hopeful that the new mailing--directed at youngsters who only show some signs of gang involvement, but not full membership--can have more of an impact.

The letters, which are addressed to parents and typed on Sheriff’s Department stationery, begin by noting that the youngster in question “may be vulnerable to the influence of a street gang.”

Lonnie Miramontes, the director of community relations at El Concilio, a Latino advocacy organization, said this is the wrong approach for police to take. He said personal contact with the families would be more effective than sending letters.

“It’s pretty hard for me to comprehend that they are trying to scare people into doing something about their children possibly being in gangs with this sort of letter,” Miramontes said. “If they really want to achieve a positive end from something like this, it’s worth it for them to get together with parents in person.”

While Edwards stressed that the letters do conclude with an opportunity for parents to arrange a personal meeting with deputies about their child’s gang activities, Miramontes maintains that more could be done.

Steve Padilla, a member of a Ventura Avenue community group called Renewed Avenue Pride, compared the sheriff’s mailing campaign to one conducted by the Ventura Police Department last year.

Most of those letters ended up on Ventura Avenue, Padilla said, proof to him that police are “mistaking a neighborhood or a barrio with a gang. Just because you live in a neighborhood doesn’t mean you belong to a gang,” Padilla said.

Individuals are singled out as gang members or associates based on 15 criteria. These include having gang tattoos, wearing certain types of clothes, associating with gang members and attending gang-sponsored functions.

While the first phase of the program targeted youths with at least five of the 15 criteria, the December mailing will be to youngsters who only meet two, three or four of the criteria--essentially teen-agers whose parents may not be aware what their behavior really means, Edwards said.

“I’m not convinced that the parents always know exactly what their children are doing,” Edwards said. “When they read the newspaper reports about gang activity they may not necessarily draw an association to their own children, even if they should.”