ANAHEIM : Anti-Drug, Gang Effort Underway

Middle-aged, friendly and dressed in a dark-blue suit, Steven Swaim doesn’t look like somebody who is doing battle with the city’s street gangs and drug lords.

But he is.

Swaim, 44, just finished his second week as the city’s gang/drug facilitator, a new position that is the first of its kind in Orange County. His job is to coordinate the city’s anti-gang programs, making sure that the hundreds of community volunteers and city workers who deal with gang members and their hangers-on are not overlapping their efforts and that these people have the support they need from the city government.

There are 35 gangs with about 700 members in the city, according to the police, and last year officers made 1,168 drug-related arrests.

“My immediate job is to look at who is doing what, cut out duplication where it exists, and make sure there is a group serving every need in this effort,” Swaim said. “My first goal is to become extremely knowledgeable about what is being done throughout the city.”

Swaim, who spent the last 13 years as the city’s community services superintendent, said there are dozens of groups and individuals doing anti-drug and gang work in the city, including churches, the Boys and Girls Club, scouting troops and various city departments. He plans to meet in the next few weeks with most of the leaders of the effort.

“For example, I recently met with the Anaheim City School District superintendent (Meliton Lopez) to talk to him about the many things his district is doing, the details of its drug resistance program and its anti-gang program. I obviously knew they had those programs, but I needed to learn more about the details.”

He said the first thing residents should see from his office is a directory of organizations that deal with gang and drug problems.

The need for Swaim’s position became apparent in the past year as the city’s newly formed Gang/Drug Task Force met, task force members said. The task force, which was composed of community leaders, noted in its final report that there is a lack of communication and coordination between the groups working to prevent drug abuse and gangs and recommended that the city establish the facilitator position.

Keith Olesen, who was the task force chairman, said he was originally surprised that someone who was already a city administrator was hired for the position, believing that an outsider was needed.

“But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense,” he said. Within a year, he said, the program must be organized and operating, or the political heat will become intense. “So it’s best that there is someone who can just concentrate on establishing the program instead of trying to learn who everybody is,” Olesen said.

Swaim said it is important for residents to realize that the battle against gangs and drugs will not be won overnight.

“There need to be measurable successes along the way, and I hope that a year from now, the residents will perceive that we have the problem under control because right now they perceive it is out of control,” he said.

“Long term--and by that I mean five, 10, 15 years from now--the number of dropouts from city high schools needs to decrease. That would be one indication our program is working. Police statistics will also need to show there is less gang and drug involvement.”