Anti-Gang Benefit Raises $70,000 : Law enforcement: The LAPD’s Jeopardy program, which is targeted at teens, holds a Latin-music benefit.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s popular but cash-poor Jeopardy anti-gang program got a needed infusion of money Sunday as more than 35,000 people attended a daylong musical benefit at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area.

Ticket sales from the seven-hour Latin music festival will go toward funding sports and recreational events for youths involved in Jeopardy, which was expanded this year from one division to cover the entire San Fernando Valley.

The event raised about $70,000. Tickets for adults cost $5, and children were admitted free.

In its first six months, organizers said, the program has grown to include more than 1,000 boys and girls in their early teens and has gained the support of parents and educators across the Valley. But it has been perpetually short of money. Only the salaries of officers staffing the program are covered by its budget. Any extras are funded by donations.

“The program is working,” said Isaac Galvan, one of the two officers who started Jeopardy two years ago in the Foothill Division as an experiment. “We just need money.”

Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker, the Valley’s top Police Department official, agreed. “This is a department with a billion-dollar budget, but we can’t afford to buy a pair of boxing gloves or a mat for wrestling or a saddle for a kid to ride a horse,” he said at Sunday’s event. “This produces some extra resources we don’t have right now.”

Unlike other police anti-gang programs that have been discontinued, Jeopardy targets boys and girls before they become seriously involved in gang activity. It heads off youngsters who are identified by school officials, family members or officers on patrol as being at risk and immediately puts them into a program of family counseling, close supervision and regular activities such as sports and outings.

Money from Sunday’s event, which featured several popular Latin bands and was attended by Police Chief Willie L. Williams, will be distributed among the five Valley police divisions. Each division offers its own set of activities, including boxing, wrestling, football, softball and dancing.

Galvan said teen-agers in the program are encouraged to help pay for the activities, but fees are waived if a student maintains good grades. If a student is unable to afford the fees, he or she can work one day each month at the police station instead. “We don’t want them to think everything is free,” Galvan said.

In addition to the music, which was organized by Spanish-language radio station KLVE-FM/KTNQ-AM, Sunday’s event included police demonstrations, food booths and carnival rides.

Festival-goers, many in cowboy boots and Western shirts, parked as far as a mile from the stages and hiked in. Many put down picnics on hills overlooking the performers.

“This is a family event, and Jeopardy is a family program,” Kroeker said. “The source of our funding is the solution to our problem: the family.”