Simi Valley Police Propose Sweeping Plan Aimed at Clamping Down on Gangs : Crime: The eight-point direct attack on youth warfare comes after a flare-up of the problem this year.

Jolted to action by a sudden flare-up of gang violence, police on Friday proposed a sweeping plan to clamp down on gang members and problem neighborhoods throughout the city.

The City Council was already set Monday to revive its dormant Community Gang Task Force after Apricot Road residents--some in tears--earlier this week pleaded with the council to quell an outbreak of gang warfare that roused them from sleep with gunfire and shocked them when their children brought home bullets.

But on Friday, Police Chief Randy Adams’ office submitted an eight-point plan of direct attack on gangs for the council to consider at its Monday meeting.

“It’s easy for everyone to say philosophically that we have a zero-tolerance approach to gangs,” Adams said. “What we’re trying to do is add action to our words.”

The plan’s eight points:

* Work with the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to arrest and deport gang members who are in the country illegally.

* Beef up the Special Enforcement Section’s gang-suppression work with officers from other sections of the Police Department.

* Strengthen the department’s relationship with county probation officers so they and Simi Valley officers can target the same gang members and potential members.

* Train all Police Department staff members on the gang problem and beef up patrols in specific neighborhoods.

* Confer with the city attorney and county prosecutors on the possibility of using curfew and truancy laws to bolster the city’s zero-tolerance policy.

* Authorize the department to hire two additional officers who could help with the gang effort.

* Order the city attorney’s office to weigh civil proceedings against known gang hangouts.

* Order the Public Works Department to review problem areas for the adequacy of street lights and the value of speed humps in fighting gang activity.

In addition, the council will consider reviving the 3-year-old Gang Task Force made up of city officials, community leaders and law enforcement officers to study the gang problem and recommend long-term solutions.

Simi Valley’s gang woes had lain dormant for more than two years until this past April Fools Day, when an alleged gang member shot a rival to death.

Victor Ramirez was riding his bike April 1 when he met Armando Rodriguez and two friends on a bridge over the Arroyo Simi. Without a word, witnesses said, Ramirez shot Rodriguez fatally in the chest, a crime that in July got him 19 years to life in prison.

Rodriguez’s death touched off several more violent confrontations, and police arrested some of his teen-age friends in alleged pay-back assaults.

Then last week, police said gang members went on a vandalism rampage, smashing house windows and cars on Bonita Drive after a suspected gang member was hit by a car on Ashland Avenue.

That incident, coupled with the beating of a 14-year-old and a drive-by shooting along Apricot Road, led police to arrest nine suspected gang members Tuesday--eight of whom were illegal immigrants and who now face deportation.

The suspects, Capt. Richard Wright said, were transplants from the San Fernando Valley, most likely from a North Hollywood gang that started trouble with one long-established Simi Valley gang that he declined to name.

“Things have stepped up again, and it’s a question of stepping up action to repress their activities,” said Wright, commander of the Special Enforcement Section, which targets gangs. “We’ve stepped up deployment, and our gang unit has been working extra shifts to make sure that we have coverage. They’re focusing wherever there may be a gang issue.”