Agencies to Combine Computer Gang Files

Steering the fight against gangs onto the information superhighway, the Los Angeles City Council accepted a grant Wednesday to allow city police to merge their files on suspected gang members with the sheriff’s electronic database, creating a countywide tracking system with more than 150,000 names.

Although praised by law-enforcement officials, the merger has worried civil libertarians, who fear the data could be used to infringe upon the rights of people who have never been convicted of a crime.

The $100,000 award from the state will pay for computers and software needed for the Los Angeles Police Department to hook up its files with the Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking (GREAT) database run by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Combined, the two agencies’ programs will contain thousands of names, nicknames, addresses and photographs of alleged gang members, all of which will be immediately accessible via a computer and modem.

Currently, police and sheriff’s deputies must share the information by telephone and on paper, a laborious process that would be virtually eliminated by the new system.

“The difference that the GREAT system provides is the difference between the city of Los Angeles getting on the Internet or not,” said Councilman Richard Alarcon. The new system will “allow us to engage in the transfer of information faster, more effectively, and therefore allow the LAPD to act more appropriately to react to gang violence.”

But civil libertarians have reacted to the database with caution, citing the possibility that it could invade the privacy of people who may belong to a gang but who have not been implicated in any wrongdoing.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg echoed that concern Wednesday before she joined with her colleagues in unanimously approving the grant.

“I obviously have no problem with tracking people who are involved in criminal behavior,” Goldberg said. But she questioned the wisdom of compiling data on people who join gangs but who have committed no crime.

Los Angeles Police Capt. Bob Ruchhoft assured the council that the information would not be abused. Law enforcement officials have also said in the past that access to the system is secure from unauthorized individuals and agencies.

Ruchhoft said the greatest benefit of the GREAT system will be access not only to Los Angeles police and sheriff’s records but eventually to the network of files from law enforcement agencies throughout the state. By year’s end, officials expect the statewide system to be up and running, with more than 180,000 names of suspected gang members.