Task Force Begins Gang Crackdown : Police: Beefed-up patrols may have helped prevent any gang-related shootings, fights or crimes over the weekend.

The first in a planned series of sweeps by a new LAPD anti-gang task force in the west San Fernando Valley on Saturday night resulted in little but a few pull-overs, police officials said. They believe gang members were likely alerted to their beefed-up patrols.

“Yesterday was so dead it was surprising,” said Los Angeles Police Officer Steve Timbol, one of the officers on the patrol. “It was so quiet I couldn’t believe it.”

Indeed, there were no gang-related shootings, fights or other crimes reported to West Valley police from Saturday evening, when the special nine-member task force hit the streets, to late Sunday, police said.

The task force was created in response to several recent gang-related shootings in the West Valley. Its goal is to increase police visibility at known gang hot spots to prevent more trouble.

“It worked,” said Lt. Thomas Kirk, watch commander at the LAPD’s West Valley station. “Whatever they were doing they were doing right.”

But officials acknowledged that measuring the task force’s success would require more time and that the police alone cannot do away with gangs.

“It’s going to take more than what LAPD can do to eradicate the problem,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the southwest Valley and supports the task force. “I think we all know it’s going to take a much longer time and a much broader effort.”

Officials said the task force will not violate the civil rights of alleged gang members, but rather to discourage them from breaking the law, preferably through casual conversations. Kirk said the task force members were on the streets from about 6 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday. The officers were expected to work similar shifts on other days, he said.

“It’s the key to prevent crime,” Kirk said of the effort to reach youths before crimes are committed. “Even if they prevent one crime of violence that’s a good thing. That’s a positive. There isn’t another victim who has to suffer.”

Capt. Val Paniccia, commanding officer at West Valley station, said the task force would exist for at least a few weeks.

Several recent gang-related shootings led West Valley police to put together the special unit.

On Sept. 16, Samuel Barrios, 16, was fatally shot at a Popeye’s restaurant in Reseda. In an unrelated Labor Day case, Narciso Gurrola, 20, of Tarzana and Maria Ortega, 17, of Reseda were shot and killed in Reseda.

Those killings, along with the gang-related slaying of 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen in Cypress Park last Sunday, shook city officials and residents eager to stop gang violence.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday is expected to consider a motion by Councilman Mike Feuer that calls for an interagency strategy to combat gang violence.

Feuer, whose district stretches from the Valley to the Westside, last week proposed a series of recommendations, including the creation of an overseer for all anti-gang violence efforts in the city.

Chick, chairwoman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said Sunday she was encouraged by the task force’s early success.

“The presence of this force is a deterrent,” Chick said. “The word gets out on the street.”

Special correspondent Tim May and Times staff writer Frank B. Williams contributed to this article.