Unit to Focus on Gangs in West Valley : Police: Task force officers may be on streets as early as Friday. Operation is expected to continue several weeks.

Responding to a recent outbreak of gang-related violence in the West San Fernando Valley, a special LAPD task force will take to the streets this weekend, targeting known gang hot spots in an attempt to head off trouble, officials said Wednesday.

“We’re going to put a little pressure on them,” said Capt. Val Paniccia, commanding officer of the Police Department’s West Valley station. “We have to put them on notice that we know who they are. That they’re not anonymous.”

Paniccia said the task force may be in the field as soon as Friday evening. The goal is not to harass youths, but rather to prevent gang activities that could lead to more violence or other crimes, he said.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee and had pressed police for a quick response to recent gang-related killings, said the task force was needed as part of ongoing efforts to fight city crime.

City officials and residents decried last weekend’s violence in the West Valley that included the fatal shooting of a teen-age boy at a Popeye’s Fried Chicken restaurant in Reseda and the unrelated slaying of a 3-year-old girl in Cypress Park.

The death of Samuel Barrios, 16, at the restaurant as well as the shooting deaths of Narciso Gurrola, 20 of Tarzana and Maria Ortega, 17, of Reseda on Labor Day were among recent cases that led West Valley police to decide to turn up the pressure on gang members. Paniccia and Chick, who represents parts of the West Valley, said the task force will be one way of letting gang members know that illegal activities ranging from drive-by shootings to loitering will not be taken lightly.

“This is insanity,” Chick said of the violence. “One of the things we care about is people’s fear levels.”

Paniccia said the task force officers will be expected to travel outside their district whenever necessary to discourage gang members in other areas from going to the West Valley for confrontations.

“Normally it’s going to be a field interview,” he said. “Questions asked. Questions answered.”

The heightened effort will continue for at least several weeks, he said.

Chick said the task force is unlikely to infringe on the civil rights of youths. Officers will question suspicious people and arrest anyone with outstanding warrants or those violating the law.

“This is not a gang sweep,” she said. “I think the LAPD is painfully aware of constitutional rights and due process.”

In a related move Wednesday, Councilman Mike Feuer, whose district stretches from the Valley to the Westside, called for an “interagency strategy” to combat gang violence more efficiently.

Feuer proposed a series of recommendations that the council is expected to consider Tuesday, including creation of a position for someone to oversee all anti-gang violence efforts in the city.

Representatives from the city’s multitude of anti-gang programs, police and community agencies and businesses should gather to review what works in turning youths away from gangs, he said.

“I think it’s very possible that we’re going to find a need for more accountability and more direction and more coordination,” Feuer said. “This is an opportunity for real collaboration. More empty words is not what I’m looking for here.”

Feuer said the city’s various efforts may be worthwhile, but are falling short nonetheless.

“I am not convinced that we’re effectively tackling the gang violence problem,” he said. “We are not winning this war.”