Gang Database Hookup Approved : Police: A City Council committee recommends joining a sheriff’s program listing names of 140,000 suspected members. Some worry about the data’s misuse.

The Los Angeles Police Department moved a step closer Monday to hooking into a mammoth computerized database that tracks information on an estimated 140,000 suspected gang members throughout Los Angeles County.

The City Council’s public safety committee voted to accept a $100,000 state grant awarded to the city to purchase computers and software to link the police into the database operated by the Sheriff’s Department.

Currently, LAPD officers must contact the Sheriff’s Department if they want to get the information stored in the system, which also includes several thousand LAPD files. If the City Council votes to approve the grant, possibly as early as next week, officers will be able to sign on to computers and access the information from the system known as Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking, or GREAT.

The database stores the names, nicknames, addresses, friends and photographs of thousands of suspected gang members, information that law enforcement authorities contend is crucial in their war against gangs.

“This is not only an improvement in terms of the use of officers’ time, but also what information is available to us and how fast,” said City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who voted in favor of accepting the grant. “Now we’re going to be able to share information with other law enforcement agencies.”

Officials from the American Civil Liberties Union have expressed concern over the GREAT system in recent days, saying the information stored in the database could be misused.

But Chick said she received assurances from the Police Department that the system is foolproof and that it uses tough criteria to determine whether a person is a gang member before entering a name into the database.

The ACLU launched a review over a year ago to determine whether innocent people were being hurt by being listed in the files. The group sent out dozens of letters asking law enforcement agencies how they decide who is a gang member, among other things.

As a result, a measure concerning the GREAT system is pending in the state Legislature.

Republican Assemblyman Bill Hoge of Pasadena is sponsoring a bill seeking to exempt the GREAT system from the public records law so that police agencies would not be required to disclose the information it contains.

A staff member for the state’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning, who asked not to be identified, said that several law enforcement groups voiced concern after the ACLU and other groups asked about the GREAT system. Whether the public has access to such information is unclear, the source said.

The Hoge bill is not expected to be heard until January. In the meantime, the source said, the Office of Criminal Justice Planning is looking into requesting an opinion from the state attorney general on the matter.