Police Plan Ad Campaign to Sell Youths on Anti-Gang Messages : Law enforcement: ‘Project: No Gangs,’ beginning later this month, will include radio spots, newspaper and bus ads and a toll-free number for referrals to counseling and youth services.

The county’s top law enforcement officials will use a new tool in their arsenal to combat street gangs: advertising.

The “Project: No Gangs” campaign to begin later this month will combine a series of 60-second radio spots and newspaper and bus advertising to highlight the dangers of gang life to parents, non-gang members and to gang members.

Police officials are coupling the ads with a toll-free telephone number for referrals to counseling or other youth services in the hopes of enforcing a principle idea that “it’s not cool to be in gangs and . . . for parents, the message is to keep kids out of gangs,” said Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters.

“We’re a big-time urban county. We want to keep this a nice place to live,” said Walters, who heads a gang strategy committee for the Orange County Police Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Assn.

Police officials said they think an advertising campaign, which will cost about $17,000 the first month, will be an effective way to chip away at what they call a glorified image of gang members borne from television and movies. And they hope the telephone number will help those who have concerns about gang activity or want to contact one of the many agencies in Orange County that deal with youths or gang members.

Police and advertising officials do not think the ads will cause any of the estimated 14,000 gang members in Orange County to suddenly abandon their gangs and change their behavior. But through time and repetition, officials said they hope the ads might sway some youths who are involved in gangs or who might be thinking about joining one.

“If you give people the straight facts about what (gang involvement) does to families and friends and communities, we think people will make the decision to separate themselves from gang activity,” said Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates.

Officials said the print and radio ads, which are undergoing final production this week, will appear in English, Spanish and Vietnamese on Sept. 27. The money for the campaign is from drug forfeitures and corporate donations, officials said.

The telephone line--800-NO-GANGS--begins Oct. 1 and will be staffed alternately by teachers, gang investigators and other volunteers, said David E. Hartl, a Tustin consultant hired by the Police Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Assn. to help plan the campaign.

When they began planning the ads about one year ago, police officials wondered what they might need to distinguish their message from several other public service messages that deal with everything from drug use to safe sex.

“That is where the idea of an 800 number came in,” said Andrew Hinshaw, president of the Irvine advertising agency that prepared the campaign. “We wanted to establish a line of communication between officials and the public.”

UCLA assistant professor of marketing Deborah Heisley said the toll-free number is an important aspect of the campaign because “it’s important to have something that people can act upon.”

David Stewart, a professor of marketing at USC, warned that the campaign could fall on deaf ears with gang members because of its association with their main nemesis, law enforcement officials.

“If you wanted to reach these folks you would probably need . . . someone who gang members would identify with,” Stewart said.

Law enforcement officials said that while the advertising strays from the traditional approach for cops to combat gangs, they decided to turn to it as one more way to try to curb gang activity in the county.

“Anything that helps draw attention to the problem or attention to potential solutions is worth everybody’s time,” said Loren Duchesne, the chief of investigations at the district attorney’s office and a gang strategy committee member.