Gang Database Raises Civil Rights Concerns

As state officials plan to expand a database with the names and photographs of reputed gang members, an arm of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union are questioning whether minorities in Orange County are unfairly targeted by local law enforcement.

Minorities make up less than 50% of Orange County’s population, yet Latinos, Asians and African Americans make up more than 90% of the 20,221 Orange County men and women being tracked by law enforcement as suspected gang members--a seeming disparity that has alarmed the California Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and others.

“I have serious questions about whether this is constitutionally all right,” said Phil Montez, regional director of the advisory panel, which launched a probe into the so-called gang list after a recent hearing into allegations of widespread civil rights violations in Orange County.

While officials plan to make the database accessible to law enforcement statewide, the Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking (GREAT) system is at the center of a debate pitting individual rights against efforts to aggressively combat gang crime.

ACLU representatives have asked the Orange County district attorney’s office to establish a civilian oversight board to scrutinize what it sees as critical problems with the gang list, including:

* The secrecy surrounding it. Only police and prosecutors have access to it and are not required to notify people who are placed on it.

* Vague criteria for determining who is a gang member. Loose-fitting clothing or hanging out in certain neighborhoods are factors used to label suspected gang members.

* Lack of evidence. Nearly half of the men and women on Orange County’s list of suspected gang members have never been arrested.

John Crew, director of the ACLU’s Police Practices Project, sent a letter to the advisory committee on July 3, urging that Orange County law enforcement officials tighten their criteria--and at the very least inform individuals when they are entered into the system.

“Orange County law enforcement is bucking a nationwide trend toward the creation of more and stronger systems of independent oversight,” Crew wrote.

Law enforcement officials across Orange County object to the criticism.

*

While stereotypical gang clothing and tattoos are sometimes taken into consideration, more than 80% of the people in the Orange County system are admitted gang members, said Loren Duchesne, head of the Orange County district attorney’s bureau of investigation and the coordinator of the Orange County database system.

“Our objective is not to put anyone in the system who is not a gang member,” Duchesne said.

There are also safeguards, Duchesne said. Officers must justify each entry into the database system. And every five years, the list is purged of people who have not come into contact with police.

“I personally do not know of anybody who is put into the gang system that does not deserve to be there,” Duchesne said. “I think we do a very good job of being careful.”

Orange County law enforcement officials say the system has helped beleaguered law enforcement officials combat Southern California’s gang problem. The list is used to keep track of ever-changing gang membership, crime patterns and brushes with the law.

Gang-related homicides in Orange County have dropped from 70 in 1995 to 42 in 1996, a reduction that Duchesne and others believe is due in part to the gang list.

Westminster Police Chief James Cook is one of the system’s biggest boosters.

“We reach the truth much quicker” when it comes to gang crimes, he said. “It has made us more efficient, has increased community safety and saved taxpayer money.”

In March, Gov. Pete Wilson echoed law enforcement’s support for the database, announcing the formation of a statewide computer system called CAL/GANG. Operated by the state Department of Justice, it will include information on reputed gang members statewide.

The program will be run by an Irvine-based data software company that provided intelligence information to the CIA during the Cold War. It is expected to be available statewide in less than one year, Duchesne said.

It’s the lack of police oversight that is a concern to many.

*

Law enforcement officials decide who is placed on the list and are not required to share that information with anyone, even individuals on the list. Authorities insist this is done to safeguard individual rights.

The list is not meant to be a criminal rap sheet; rather, it is an informational tool for authorities to use when tracking down suspected gang members involved in serious crimes, they said.

“That person is not being labeled, he is being used as a potential lead for law enforcement,” said Don Mace, the CAL/GANG project administrator at the Department of Justice.

Individuals who are stopped by police, photographed and asked to provide personal information can assume they are on the list, Cook said.

Of the 20,221 people on Orange County’s list, 14,732 are Latino, 2,586 are Asian, 1,521 are white and 898 are black, Duchesne said.

Those numbers reflect a sad reality of gang violence in Orange County, not police targeting minorities, authorities said.

“Gangs tend to develop among new immigrant groups and in socioeconomic areas where they have been denied opportunities,” Cook said. “It is a tragic fact. However, we simply accept crime as crime when it comes in.”

But critics say they still have troubling questions about why so many minorities make the list and concerns that many being listed cannot defend themselves.

“We have masses of people being labeled without recourse,” said Yvette Verastegui, an Orange County public defender. “I’m not saying there isn’t a gang problem, but I also believe that there are certain rights we need to protect.”

*

At a minimum, authorities should implement the standards Garden Grove police agreed to when they settled a 1994 civil rights lawsuit with the ACLU over photographing Asian youths for their “gang book,” Crew said.

Those standards include barring police from photographing individuals without evidence of a crime being committed and allowing detainees to refuse to have their pictures be taken, according to the civil rights agency.

The GREAT list has soured relations with police in Anaheim, Santa Ana and other areas heavily populated by minorities, residents said.

Jessica Castro, chairwoman of United Neighborhoods, said Latino youths are questioned and photographed by police despite there being no evidence of a crime or gang membership. She also questioned the list’s value.

“This is not doing anything about our gang problem. This is not resolving the issue,” Castro said.

Claudio Ceja, 15, of Anaheim said he believes he is wrongly on Orange County’s gang list.

He insists he is not a gang member but said he has been stopped repeatedly by local law enforcement officials and had his picture taken.

“I don’t like them stopping me too often, but I’ve gotten used to it already” Ceja said. “I tell them, ‘I’m not in a gang. I’ve never been arrested.’ It’s wrong. They can’t judge you by the way you dress or who you hang out with. They should judge you by the way you are when they get to know you.”

Keeping Track

Orange County law enforcement officials keep track of suspected gang members by compiling names, photos, and suspected activities in a massive database. Supporters say the list has helped beleaguered law enforcement officials combat a growing gang problem.

* Critics say: Database is discriminatory, in part because Asians, Latinos and African Americans compose most of the list--but are still the minority in Orange County.

* Police/prosecutors reply: Ethnicity is irrelevant; only suspicious/illegal activity lands someone on the list.

Here’s how the ethnic breakdown from the list of more than 20,000 suspected gang members/associates compares to ethnic composition of the county’s 2.6 million people (1995, most recent available):

Total population

White 59%

Latino 27

Asian* 11

Black 2

Other 1

Gang members/ associates

Latino 73%

Asian* 15

White 7

Black 4

Unknown 1

* Includes Pacific Islanders

Sources: Orange County district attorney’s office, Center for Demographic Research (Cal State Fullerton); Researched by LORENZA MUNOZ/Los Angeles Times