Injunctions Weighed for Gang Members

Looking for more leverage against gang violence, Simi Valley officials are weighing a new weapon for keeping convicted gang members in line: civil court injunctions.

The Simi Valley Gang Task Force is considering going to court to get civil orders forbidding specific juvenile gang members who are out on probation from gathering at public parks.

The idea is to keep gang probationers from establishing turf or starting trouble that might lead them to commit more crimes, said Sgt. Greg Riegert, head of the city’s gang suppression team.

“We had a problem a few months back with one of our local parks,” Riegert said, referring to Rancho Simi Community Park. “One of the two major gangs in town had claimed the local park as their turf, and we had some assaults out of that.”

Police beefed up patrols, videotaped suspected gang members and generally pressured them into behaving, he said.

But police have begun studying the task force’s suggestion Tuesday that Simi Valley consider following the lead of cities such as San Jose. That city began obtaining civil court injunctions to block individual known gang members from using the parks, a practice backed up by a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Riegert said.

Gang members already face possible jail time for committing crimes that violate their probation. But civil injunctions offer an additional penalty and a further deterrent: cash fines levied against gang members who ignore the court orders, Riegert said.