Chipping Away at Gangs’ Influence

Gang members in Orange County killed fewer people last year for the third year in a row, but in overall crimes they preyed on non-gang members in record numbers, according to an annual report released Tuesday by the district attorney’s office.

The report chronicles the efforts of the county’s TARGET program, or Tri-Agency Resource Gang Enforcement Teams. The program focuses the efforts of police, the district attorney and probation officers on the gang members who commit the most crimes, tracking who they associate with, monitoring probation violations and arresting them for any crime, large or small.

The report showed gang-related homicides dropped last year from 42 to 39, a five-year low, after plummeting from 70 in 1995. In addition, the report shows a decrease in violent gang crime overall.

But the number of non-gang members victimized jumped nearly 50% last year, from 1,575 to 2,276--the highest total in five years.

“Gang members certainly don’t care if they victimize non-gang members, but that’s always been the case,” said Doug Woodsmall, supervising attorney of the Orange County district attorney’s gang unit. “Why the figure is so much higher this year, I’m not sure.”

Santa Ana Police Capt. Dan McCoy said the increase may simply be due to more accurate reporting of which crimes involve gang members.

“Also, I don’t want to give the impression those are all victims of violent crime,” he said. Much of the increase stems from nonviolent crimes such as vandalism, car theft and burglary, he said.

The report also shows Orange County gained 12 new gangs and 2,400 new gang members in 1997, bringing the totals to 385 and 18,768, respectively. But membership decreased overall, as police dropped 4,000 people from their suspect rolls because they haven’t been active in gangs for five years.

“Why did more of them join? Why did any of them join in the first place?” McCoy asked. “Don’t they understand it’s a dead end?”

For some youths, the gang may act like a surrogate family, he said.

“They’re proud to be gang members when they get into it,” McCoy said. “Later they admit it was the stupidest thing they ever did.”

The TARGET program seeks to remove “those gang leaders who precipitate the most violence,” said Westminster Police Chief James Cook. “By removing them, we eliminate a lot of their future crimes.”

Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi said that by putting the most violent gang members in prison, “you get to the heart of the problem.”

Among the more than 700 gang members authorities targeted in Orange County last year, officers made 231 probation-violation arrests, searched 549 locations and seized 342 firearms, the report said.

“Hopefully, some of the others are learning from that,” Capizzi said. “The gang members that are still out there are learning that if they step out of line, we’re going after them.”

The decreases in gang violence are reflected in state statistics. According to the California Department of Justice, gang-related killings dropped from 880 in 1994 to 620 in 1996.

McCoy said the best way to reduce gang crimes and membership even further is to focus on prevention, to deter youths from getting into gangs in the first place. Anti-drug DARE programs in elementary schools now include anti-gang messages. And in Santa Ana, when officers arrest a gang member, a counselor goes along to talk to his siblings, “so they don’t follow in his footsteps,” McCoy said.

Westminster’s Cook echoed the call for a greater focus on prevention.

“With these programs in place, we are beginning to make headway,” he said of TARGET. “However, society is infinitely capable of producing gang members.”

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O.C. Gang Activity

Projections for 1997 show a decline in the total number of gang-related incidents reported by police agencies around the county, and a decrease in violent crimes as well. But the number involving firearms and drugs as well as those aimed at non-gang members increased substantially.

All incidents:

1994: 3,611

1995: 3,394

1996: 3,384

1997: 3,294

*--*

Violent Firearm Drugs Non-gang crimes* involved involved victim 1994 1,633 1,104 169 1,788 1995 1,593 1,221 199 1,537 1996 1,815 1,257 409 1,575 1997** 1,508 1,494 818 2,276

*--*

* Includes homicide, felonious assault, carjacking, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, terrorism, assault and battery, witness intimidation, extortion, shooting into a dwelling/vehicle

** Projected

Source: Orange County district attorney’s office