ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : Street Gangs: Let’s Use Every Tool in Toolbox : Reassignment of FBI agents will provide new resources and augment, rather than supplant, local efforts.

In January, Atty. Gen. William Barr and FBI Director William Sessions announced the Safe Streets program, a national effort that reassigned 300 FBI agents from foreign counterintelligence matters to work on violent crimes and gangs. This unexpected “peace dividend” translates into 22 FBI agents for the Los Angeles regional FBI office, which encompasses Orange County.

What is significant about the Safe Streets program is not the assignment of additional personnel, but rather the addition of new weapons to the gang prosecution arsenal--tough federal laws, particularly anti-racketeering and -drug statutes used to prosecute street-gang leaders and put some gang organizations out of business.

We also have agreed with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to establish a joint National Gang Analysis Center. Gangs are becoming increasingly sophisticated and frequently operate in many jurisdictions. These additional federal resources are not intended to replace local law enforcement efforts in the gang area, but rather to supplement existing anti-gang programs.

One very loud message--one heard all the way back in Washington--is that citizens consider gangs and their violence to be near or at the top of their list of concerns.

Orange County has grown into a major metropolitan area with more than 2.5 million people. With this population growth, Orange County’s share of gang violence and gang activities has also grown. Unlike some other jurisdictions, however, Orange County has taken a comprehensive approach to its gang problems.

The Orange County Chiefs and Sheriffs Assn. should be applauded for creating one of the country’s first master plans for gang control, diversion and prevention. This master plan looks to unify the efforts of federal, state, county and local police agencies. It looks to secure funding sources to support a multi-jurisdictional approach to this critical need. The strategy also recognizes that violent crime will not be overcome by law enforcement alone and includes participation by social service agencies and the community. The FBI will join in this combined effort; our intention is to dovetail with the excellent effort underway in Orange County.

The FBI does not pretend to bring all the answers to the problem of gangs. We recognize that dealing with violent street crime primarily is and should remain a state and local responsibility. What the FBI can add to this effort is our expertise in investigating other groups of gangs, particularly organized-crime mob families that terrorized decent Americans.

Using past successes and resultant expertise gained in these investigations, our agents can use anti-racketeering statutes to dismantle the modern-day street gangs involved in interstate drug operations and other violent crimes. Federal convictions can mean mandatory minimum prison sentences with no probation or parole. We also have the experience and resources necessary to investigate violations of law that mix violent acts and sophisticated financial transactions.

There are those who would argue that one raid or dismantling one criminal enterprise won’t stop the drug business and attendant violence. We’re not promising that any one investigation, any one agent or officer, or any one prosecution will stop the drug business and halt the street violence gangs spawn.

We owe it to the American people to use our “peace dividend” in a manner with direct impact on quality of life within our communities. We believe that devoting resources to the street gang problem is one way to start. It’s time for us to stand together, pool our strengths and use every tool in the toolbox to address street violence rather than dismiss it as merely a “local” problem.