Anti-Gang Program Paying Off : Crime: Westminster reports dramatic decrease in related violence since TARGET efforts began.

Despite a recent series of cafe shootings in the city, police Tuesday reported a stunning 62% decline in gang-related crime during the past two years and a near-perfect record of prosecution for gang members charged.

A report released by Police Chief James Cook said the reduction in gang violence has been directly related to a program--recently expanded countywide--devoted to weeding out neighborhood gang leaders for prosecution.

Among the most significant findings contained in the 55-page study of gang crime in the city, officials said that all but one of the 67 cases referred for prosecution last year resulted in either a finding or plea of guilty.

And since 1991, police report, the number of gang-related crimes has plunged from 286 to 110 incidents last year.

“This means that crimes have now been reduced to such a low level that it will be difficult to demonstrate further decreases,” the report stated. “In the last quarter of 1993, few such crimes occurred in any given month.”

Even with the apparent success, one county official cautioned that more work was needed to see improvement in the especially gang-plagued areas of Santa Ana and other central and North County cities.

“We’re a long way from declaring victory here,” said county Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, whose district includes Westminster. “Gangs still remain a threat to Southern California. The (Westminster) results are encouraging, but I’m just being realistic. I don’t think we should be getting too excited yet.”

After starting the gang enforcement program called TARGET in 1992, Chief Cook reported almost immediate success. The strategy involves teaming local police officers with prosecutors and probation officers in an effort to build criminal cases against hardened gang leaders based in the community.

County officials, including Stanton, recently approved a $2-million program to extend the strategy to six other cities in the county, including Santa Ana, where gang crime has been a growing problem. Those programs have just begun operations and are not expected to show major changes in gang crime activity for up to two years.

“If, in fact, these figures can be verified,” Stanton said of Cook’s report, “it shows what really paying attention to a problem can do. Adding more people and keeping track of our progress mean a change in trends here. I think we’re just starting to come to grips with the situation here.”

The report comes as police have been investigating possible gang involvement in a string of cafe shootings in Westminster and Garden Grove that have left two dead and five wounded.