More money. More community involvement. More outreach.
That is what politicians and law enforcement officials say is needed to end the cycle of gang violence plaguing parts of the San Gabriel Valley, a cycle largely to blame for a surge in homicides last year in the area patrolled by the sheriff’s Industry Station. Of 31 slayings, 24 were gang related.
When confronted with the data, elected and law enforcement officials recommended an increase in intervention and jobs programs for youths, and tougher gang suppression measures. Schools, families and the community also will need to be involved, they added.
“These are very disturbing statistics,” said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who will become chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Public Safety.
Romero said she hopes the Sheriff’s Department meets with local officials to see what can be done both at the local and state level.
“There’s room for everybody to work together,” Romero said. “What are the solutions? What can we do to prevent people from being locked up?”
Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, said elected leaders need to work together to try to end the violence. She suggested offering training to young people that will help them find jobs and build self-esteem.
“I’m willing to try it, but I’m only one person,” Napolitano said. “You need the community itself to be involved.”
Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, D-Industry, plans to hold community summits that will include discussion of public safety concerns. He will invite the Sheriff’s Department and local police departments.
Hernandez, a graduate of Bassett High School, credited his parents with keeping him out of gangs when growing up in La Puente. “What I feared more were my parents,” Hernandez said.
Experts questioned the extent to which expanded programs will help, and whether the resources brought to bear will be enough to turn the corner on the violence.
“We have to deal with the root causes – poverty, family dysfunction, schools, jobs,” said Jorja Leap, a UCLA professor and member of the county’s Interagency Gang Task Force. “We are not willing to spend the money because the victims are poor and of color. If it were the children of the wealthy, would we be this cavalier?”
Leap said one thing is for sure: gang problems cannot be dealt with by police alone.
Most programs geared toward gangs have not been evaluated, and the few that have been are either ineffective or exacerbate problems, said Malcolm Klein, professor emeritus of sociology at USC and expert on street gangs.
“These kids join for identity and to belong,” Klein said. “If we do something for gangs, they bond better” and that can lead to more crime.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina represents the Valinda Corridor, where 17 of the 31 killings occurred. The corridor encompasses the county areas of Bassett, Valinda, East Valinda and West Valinda.
Molina helped secure funds for an existing program called Safe Passages that places deputies near public school campuses.
The county also gave $1.5million to the Sheriff’s Department last year. Half of that went to the gang unit called Operation Safe Streets, which used $140,000 to pay for overtime so deputies could work on gang suppression in the Industry Station area from Aug. 5 to Sept.15.
“We were putting a dozen patrol cars, two-man cars, at all hours,” said Sgt. Sal Munoz, adding that it came in response to a midyear escalation of violence. “Crime just stopped, came to a virtual halt.”
Munoz, who is in charge of the gang unit at Industry Station, said the station already had plans drawn up to attack the violence but lacked the resources to implement them. When additional funds came, the department moved quickly.
“Money was a godsend,” he said.
Industry Station Capt. Mike Smith said the station’s efforts are ongoing and that the department has given him additional officers from units such as the Community Oriented Policing Services and the Gang Enforcement Team.
La Puente, which had eight of the homicides last year, also funded the station’s plan to combat gangs.
The city budgeted $30,000, but spent only $18,000 for overtime for deputies during a gang program in the summer, said David Lasher, assistant to the La Puente city manager.
On Oct. 19, Lasher, along with members of city code enforcement and parking patrol, joined 130 law enforcement agencies in a sweep that checked if people were complying with the conditions of their parole or probation.
Ten teams hit 30 locations in La Puente, Bassett, East Valinda, West Valinda and West Covina. They arrested 14 people, seized seven firearms and put three children in the custody of the County Department of Children and Family Services.
“We found a guy living in an illegally converted garage,” Lasher said. There was “a loaded pistol under the mattress where this gentleman’s baby was laying.”
The four-deputy special assignment team the city pays for also has been spending a lot of its time on gang enforcement, he added.
“We are doing the best we can with the resources we have,” he said. “It’s a regional problem not isolated to La Puente.”
Leap said the county’s large population has competing needs. While people don’t want gangs around, she said they’re often not willing to pay the price for intervention programs and gang suppression.
“The thing that needs to be said is that we are not willing to invest in jobs and schools,” Leap said.
She used as example voters’ rejection of a half-cent sales tax spearheaded by Sheriff Lee Baca in 2004 that would have raised $500 million and paid for expanded gang teams, domestic violence educations programs and expanded community policing.
Supervisor Molina said the county areas don t have enough deputies compared to the contract cities, a charge Baca has denied. The Industry Station has gone from 24 to 32 vacancies, depending on the month. And in the past two years, the station has been down between 25 to 30 deputies.
But Smith said the station has adequate deputies to cover its cities and county areas.
Budget cuts forced the sheriff s department to stop hiring three years ago. Last year, the department hired and trained 1,000 deputies. The station expects to get additional personnel within the next three months.