Gang Strike Forces for 6 O.C. Cities Proposed : Crime: D.A.’s $2-million plan seeks to duplicate Westminster’s multi-agency TARGET program.

Teams of police, prosecutors and investigators would be rushed to six cities early next year as part of a sweeping $2-million proposal to expand Orange County’s assault on gang violence.

Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi has been quietly lobbying county officials to duplicate the successful Westminster Police Department program known as TARGET, which sends special units into troubled neighborhoods to remove gang leaders from the streets.

The largest number of resources would be dispatched to Santa Ana, the site of 41 gang-related shootings this year and the most gang-plagued community in the county. TARGET teams also would be established in Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange, Costa Mesa and a south Orange County city still to be selected.

Capizzi’s proposal has been in the works for months, but is now working its way to the Board of Supervisors in the wake of the county’s first anti-gang summit this week.

Although many details have yet to be worked out, Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters said Friday that the special units could swing into action by Jan. 1 as long the board agrees to pay for the program later this month.

Among the unresolved issues is a “lack of agreement” between Sheriff Brad Gates and the district attorney’s office over which agency would manage the program, according to a memo being reviewed by supervisors. Gates could not be reached for comment Friday.

Nevertheless, talk of expanding the program is generating enthusiastic support among city police departments.

“We’ve watched this program and its success in Westminster, and we think this will really work for us,” Walters said. “We’re really excited about getting this going.”

In Westminster, the TARGET program teams city police with prosecutors, investigators and probation officers in a strategy to make stronger criminal cases against gang leaders, fracturing the organizations.

Team members work in the same office, coordinating action on very select groups of gang members in a specific area.

Since the program began last year, it has been credited with cutting by half gang-related violence in Westminster and establishing a perfect record of gang-related prosecutions. Most cities have anti-gang units in their police departments, but do not always have prosecutors and probation officers working in the same offices and on the same cases from the start of gang investigations.

Capizzi declined Friday to discuss the expansion until details are worked out, but generally described the Westminster project as “the best solution to getting at the root of the existing gang crime problem.”

According to county and police officials familiar with the district attorney’s plan, cities with the most serious gang violence problems were selected to participate. With the exception of Santa Ana, each of the cities would receive one special unit.

Santa Ana, because of the explosion of gang-related deaths there, would get two units.

It was not immediately clear how many law officers and prosecutors would be assigned to each unit, but county officials have said that the program could possibly require hiring many new officers in a number of agencies.

Walters said he expected the organizational details to be completed this month.

Because of a noticeable proliferation of weapons used by gang members in his city, Walters said Friday that he would be calling on agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to join the special units and specifically focus on weapons violations involving gang members.

“Putting all these resources together in the same unit will give us tremendous expertise,” Walters said. “It’s an outstanding idea. For us the gang issue is very important.”

This has been a record-breaking year for gang-related deaths in Orange County, with 60 killings so far. Prosecutors estimate there are nearly 17,000 gang members in 275 gangs.

But in recent years, gangs have become a troubling reality countywide. Maps prepared by local authorities have charted the spread of gang territories to the North County streets of Los Alamitos and Fullerton to the South County cities of San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.

In recent months, street violence has moved into communities previously spared gang killings. In October, a popular San Clemente High School student was speared through the head with a paint roller and later died. During summer months, two deadly shootings occurred on the Newport Beach Pier.

This week, the collective mood of the county seemed to reach a boiling point when about 1,000 people--parents, children, business leaders, law enforcement officers and elected officials--attended the county’s first anti-gang summit looking for possible solutions to tame the mounting level of violence.

Aside from providing more social programs, such as parenting classes or recreation activities for local youths, summit organizers have described the TARGET program as possibly the most promising law enforcement tool available and have supported its expansion countywide.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who organized Tuesday’s summit, has already indicated her support for the program and TARGET has been well-received in other board offices as well.

Supervisor William G. Steiner said he is enthusiastic about the program, but is concerned about how to break $2 million free to pay for it.

“I’m definitely for making the fight against gang violence a high priority,” Steiner said. “The Westminster model is a good one, but we’ve got to think this thing through.”

Although the passage of Proposition 172 early last month extended the half-cent sales tax to fund local prosecution and law enforcement services, county officials said funding the special gang program could require taking money from other county programs.

“This is what the public seems to want,” said one county official close to the process. Capizzi “is going to strike while the iron is hot.”

“Right now, we’re trying to flesh out all the details, but I think there is a will to do this.”

Gang Victim Index

At least 60 people have been killed this year in Orange County in what police believe was gang-related violence, the most for any year.

One woman was killed as she walked home after buying ice cream at a neighborhood market. A teen-ager was shot in the head while driving to school. Another teen died while waiting to depart on a church retreat. Six people were gunned down within steps of their front doors. Two died on the Riverside Freeway.

Among the victims were a Century High varsity soccer player; a murder suspect; the mother of a 4-year-old boy; a construction worker who hoped to be an architect; a man who worked at UCI Medical Center; and a woman who worked in a fast-food restaurant.

Sixteen of the victims were under 18 years old. Twenty-seven more were between the ages of 18 and 25.

Many were gang members. Many were not.

The statistics:

* Male victims: 56

* Female victims: 4

* Average victim age: 22.3

* Most common age: 19 (10 victims)

* Youngest victim: 2; shot in the head while his father carried him home after a haircut

* Oldest: 64; great-grandmother shot in her driveway and died in her son’s arms

* Drive-by victims: 10

* Daylight killings: 6

* Most common venue: Vehicles; 13 killed while driving, riding or sitting in cars or trucks

* Killed by gunfire: 57

* Deadliest month: October; 16 deaths (five on Oct. 16)

* Least deadly month(s): January, April and May, 2 deaths each

* Deadliest city: Santa Ana, 41

* Next deadliest: Anaheim, 7

Sources: Times reports; various police departments; Orange County district attorney’s office; Orange County coroner’s office; Researched by JODI WILGOREN / Los Angeles Times