Gang Statistics Compiled in Vast Database

Hailed by law enforcement officers as one of their most effective tools against gangs, the county’s mammoth Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking (GREAT) database is also the most controversial.

The computer file system lists names, nicknames, addresses, friends and physical descriptions of tens of thousands of suspected gang members throughout Los Angeles County, according to the district attorney’s gang report released Thursday. In fact, GREAT is the source for one of the report’s most explosive findings--that 47% of the county’s young black men have been identified as either gang members or associates.

The people listed have not necessarily been convicted of a crime or arrested. Some are included on the basis of appearance, including clothing and tattoos. And many of the names in GREAT were generated by “field interrogations”--instances in which people were stopped for questioning but not arrested.

Managers of GREAT and its counterpart in the Los Angeles Police Department said Thursday they are aware of the civil liberties issues at stake and maintained that the names in their files had been carefully screened. Only specially trained officers in their departments’ gang details are allowed to list someone in the files--not the patrol officers who often provide the initial information, they said.

“We don’t want to create gang members. We’ve got enough,” said Sgt. Wes McBride, one of the sheriff’s gang experts.

McBride and Los Angeles Police Detective Bob Jackson said their departments use strict criteria in identifying someone as a gang member. Although baggy pants, baseball caps and certain T-shirts can be clues to gang affiliation, those fashion fads are also corroborated by tattoos, use of gang signs, witness identification or admission of gang membership, they said.

They also said the files are periodically purged of names of people no longer involved in gang or criminal activity.

Although the report faults the system for failing to distinguish hard-core gang members from hangers-on, prosecutors make frequent use of the data base. Deputy District Atty. Michael Genelin, head gang prosecutor, said GREAT enables him to learn more about defendants and witnesses while preparing cases, and to argue for harsher sentences.

“Gangs are more dangerous (than ordinary criminals) because your reach is extended when you’re a member of a gang,” Genelin said. “We are not dealing with choirboys.”