Countywide : Gates Proposes Gang Education Program

As gang-related violent crimes reach new highs in Orange County, Sheriff Brad Gates is proposing a $400,000 prevention program that stresses gang education and awareness on a countywide scale.

Called Project No Gangs, the proposal will go before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for consideration.

The project, developed by the Orange County Chiefs of Police & Sheriff’s Assn., would involve hiring eight civilian employees, including an executive director and crime prevention specialists, who would work with schools and other organizations to increase prevention and awareness of gang violence. The nonprofit program is expected to pay for itself after its first year in operation, county officials said.

“This is a countywide approach to a countywide problem,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Doug Storm, who is helping coordinate the project. “Our first line of attack to gangs starts with education.”

As proposed, the program would be similar to the Sheriff Department’s Drug Use Is Life Abuse Foundation, a privately funded partnership between business and law enforcement leaders that has produced anti-drug brochures for students, as well as other educational programs.

“It’s just one more piece of the puzzle toward dealing with gangs and violence in Orange County,” said Supervisor William G. Steiner, who predicted his colleagues would agree to pay for the program’s start-up costs.

“A number of good things are happening in the county, but people seem to be going in different directions. We need to have a coordinated countywide approach.”

Supervisors have already approved a sweeping $2-million enforcement program, headed by Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, in which special teams of prosecutors, probation officers and local police are being dispatched to troubled neighborhoods in select areas to target gang leaders. That project is an extension of the successful TARGET (Tri-Agency Resources Gang Enforcement Team) started in Westminster.

While TARGET stresses enforcement, Project No Gangs will focus on education, prevention and awareness.

Prosecutor Douglas Woodsmall, who supervises the district attorney’s gang unit, said education “goes hand in hand” with enforcement measures.

“I don’t think that putting gang members in jail or in prison is the whole answer,” he said. “It’s an important part of the answer. But as long as people keep joining gangs, the people we put in prison are going to be replaced, (and) you have to do something to stem that tide.”