LAGUNA NIGUEL : TARGET Unit Aims to Battle Area Gangs

Following the example of the Westminster Police Department’s successful gang unit, three county law enforcement agencies are joining efforts to go after hard-core gang members in South County, police officials announced Monday.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has joined the district attorney’s office and the probation department to create the Tri-Agency Resource Gang Enforcement Team (TARGET) to “take the people off the street who belong in jail,” said Steve Carroll, head of the sheriff’s gang enforcement team.

Specifically, he said, TARGET will be aimed at gang leaders and members on gang-term probation, which does not allow them to associate with other gang members. In essence, he said, the new unit will focus on 63 gang members who are “supposed to be the worst.”

The TARGET unit will consist of one deputy district attorney, one district attorney’s investigator, one probation officer and two sheriff’s deputies.

The unit will be based in Laguna Niguel and cover all cities and unincorporated areas from Irvine to the San Diego County line, Carroll said.

He said the idea to create TARGET in South County originated with the district attorney’s office, which liked the relative success of a similar unit operating in Westminster. The Westminster program, now in its third year, has been aimed mainly at gang leaders.

Last July, the Westminster’s unit had jailed 43 of 80 individuals targeted. More recent statistics were not available Monday. Countywide, in 1993, there were about 17,000 known gang members--85% of whom are Latino--in 275 identified gangs, officials said.

By targeting the leaders of these gangs, Carroll said, “we’re going after the people who righteously belong in jail.” He said there are gang members who are so violent in nature that they will not change. “The young ones, you can help,” he said.