Santa Ana Crackdown Brings Mixed Results

Though other crimes diminished in four city neighborhoods targeted for police enforcement during 1995, the number of attempted murders and assaults with deadly weapons increased, according to a report released Thursday.

The report summarized the second-year results of Santa Ana’s high-profile Street Terrorist Offender Project (STOP), which brings together law enforcement, schools and social service agencies to combat suspected gang members.

During 1995, felony assaults such as attempted murder were up 14% from the previous year in the four neighborhoods described by police as high-crime areas. But police said other indicators of gang activity were down in those areas: Street robbery, auto theft and auto burglary decreased by an average of about 35%, the report showed.

Officials said gang members may be responsible for as much as 70% of crime in some areas and credited STOP with the reductions announced at Thursday’s news conference.

“Across the city, folks have been telling me things are getting better,” Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. said, behind an array of guns and assault weapons confiscated from gang members.

Police Chief Paul M. Walters said continued deployment of joint enforcement teams are the key to cutting into gang-related crime. He said that though the various agencies normally cooperate, STOP brings them even closer together.

“We’re focusing our resources,” he said. “That’s their only job.”

Erma Garcia, who lives in the westside Santa Anita neighborhood targeted by STOP, said she has seen fewer people trying to break into cars during the past year.

“We would see kids trying to break into cars in the daylight,” she said, but added that drug dealers are still common.

Besides Santa Anita, police concentrated on the Frontier Valley neighborhood in southern Santa Ana, the Delhi neighborhood in the southeastern area and three adjoining sections in the city’s northeastern area.

Of 102 gang members targeted, 74 were arrested on suspicion of crimes ranging from murder to probation violation, according to the report. About half of those arrested have been convicted, and the rest are awaiting trial, the report said.

STOP is based on a gang-fighting effort started by Westminster police and known as the Tri-Agency Resource Gang Enforcement Team.

In Santa Ana, each STOP team consists of a deputy district attorney, a district attorney investigator, a probation officer and three police officers.

Santa Ana has three STOP teams that work out of the same office in police headquarters and are able to quickly share information. Deputy district attorneys, for example, can tell police officers what evidence they need, often resulting in cases being filed in three days rather than 10, Lt. Hugh F. Mooney said.

In 1994, STOP focused on the Third Street area claimed by the Sixth Street gang and arrested 91 suspects, according to the report.

Police officials said the changes were dramatic in the Third Street area--a 41% reduction in crime--and moved the program to four other crime-scarred neighborhoods during 1995, the program’s second year.

STOP areas have traditionally been kept secret, and officials declined to name the 1996 targets.