Report Examines Gangs’ Link to Drugs : Study: Research in Pasadena and Pomona shows members are less involved than had been believed.

A study released this month by a USC criminologist has found that gangs in Pasadena and Pomona are less involved in drug sales than had been believed.

Cheryl L. Maxson, a research associate in USC’s Social Science Research Institute, tracked the number of times identified gang members were arrested for selling drugs in the two cities, from the beginning of 1989 through 1991.

In “Street Gangs and Drug Sales in Two Suburban Cities,” Maxson, 42, found that 11% of 471 arrests for drug sales, excluding cocaine, involved gang members.

The numbers for cocaine sales were higher--gang members were arrested in 27% of the 1,563 cases.

Maxson believes her findings could have important implications for law enforcement officials. Past studies, she said, have found gang involvement in 30% to 95% of drug sale cases.

“I think that in terms of the specialization of law enforcement units, that. . . the implications are that they should continue what they’re doing,” she said. But “bringing specialized gang information into those operations may not help them as much.”

In a letter to the National Institute of Justice, Pomona Police Chief Charles M. Heilman said the study affirmed views and observations of his department’s gang and narcotics investigators.

“Investigators have not established a significant relationship between gang membership and drug trafficking activity in the city,” the chief wrote.

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Pasadena Police Cmdr. Wayne D. Hiltz said the study was accurate, based on the data the researchers had available to them.

But, Hiltz said, the data may be skewed because the research did not take into account the middlemen whom gang members might hire to sell drugs for them.

Maxson gathered her data by matching lists of arrestees in drug sales cases to the departments’ gang files.

Pasadena and Pomona were chosen, Maxson said, because they are mid-sized suburban cities with longstanding gang problems. The cities also have well-developed gang units and maintain gang membership files.

Maxson’s study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Justice. It is being published in the “Modern Gang Reader,” a compendium of gang-related articles and studies. The U.S. Department of Justice will also publish Maxson’s work.

Maxson said she was not surprised at the results of her study and said that news media reports often reinforce the perceived connection between gangs and drug sales.

“There (are) clearly substantial levels of gang involvement in drug sales,” she said, “but not to the degree that one would think if your only information is the media.”