OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY
2000 ANNUAL GANG CASES REPORT
INCLUDING THE GANG UNIT
THE REGIONAL GANG ENFORCEMENT TEAM
& THE TRI-AGENCY RESOURCE GANG ENFORCEMENT TEAMS
TONY RACKAUCKAS
ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
JUNE 2001
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Scope of Gang-Involved Crime in 2000
Anti-Gang Prosecution Efforts in General
The Regional Gang Enforcement Team
TARGET Program Prosecution Efforts
A letter from the Orange County District Attorney
Orange County is a safer place to live thanks to the continuing aggressive and coordinated law enforcement effort directed against criminal street gang violence. Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies remain united, working collaboratively, toward the goal of eliminating gang violence.
I am pleased to announce that as a result of the united effort against gang violence, gang crime has been substantially reduced in recent years. Gang murders are down 50% from just two years ago. Total gang crime is at a five-year low. Impressively, there are approximately 6,200 fewer gang members terrorizing Orange County now than existed in 1996.
Gang violence endangers all citizens, but exacts a heavy toll on our most precious resource – our youth. As your District Attorney, I consider eliminating senseless and random criminal street gang violence one of my highest priorities. To that end, I will continue to direct all necessary resources to do the job the best it can be done. This office will also continue implementing innovative and collaborative strategies in the struggle against criminal street gang violence.
I am pleased to report that police and prosecutors have continued to excel in this endeavor during the first half of this year. Recent notable examples include the arrest of seven gang members who were charged with murder and attempted murder because of a fight at a shopping mall, and the convictions of five white supremacists on charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon in a race-motivated attack at a billiards hall.
Unfortunately, gangs are numerous and pervasive in our community. We must not, however, accept criminal street gang violence as here to stay. In partnership with other law enforcement and private agencies and particularly all law-abiding residents of the community, we are going to strive toward the eventual goal of eliminating all criminal street gang violence.
Tony Rackauckas
Orange County District Attorney
What follows is an edited version of the 2000 Annual Gang Cases Report produced by the Office of the District Attorney. If you desire a copy of the full report, contact Mike Stefanko (Mike.Stefanko@da.ocgov.com or (714) 347-8424).
PART 1: OVERVIEW
This report uses both narrative and statistical information to present a picture of the scope of gang crime in Orange County. It focuses on the efforts by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, police agencies, the Probation Department, and others in combating this problem. These efforts have resulted in the removal of many violent gang leaders from the streets, as evidenced by declining crime numbers. Amid the successes, challenges remain: the statistics also suggest that there are still too many neighborhoods where fear of gangs is commonplace. Of course, the scope of the gang problem is too complex to be completely described through statistics or brief narratives.
According to the State Department of Justice Crime Index figures, the total number of all reported crimes (not just gang crime) in seven categories (homicide, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, auto theft, arson) has dropped substantially since 1996. Our own tabulations show Orange County gang-related homicides dropped in 2000 to only 16, less than a fourth of the peak number of 72 in 1994, and a decrease of 50% in just the past two years. District Attorney gang-member defendant filings dropped substantially for the third year.
While filings for "Other Violent Offenses" dropped for a sixth consecutive year, drug offense filings and filings for "Other Serious Offenses" (which include burglary and grand theft auto) have increased. Also, home invasion robberies are drawing more public attention. The Regional Gang Enforcement Team (see Part II) includes these invasions among the particular Orange County crimes on which they focus.
In addition, 945 individuals, many with long time gang associations, were formally identified by law enforcement agencies as gang members in 2000. These gang members replace some of those who are no longer active or who have been imprisoned. When the "deactivated" gang members are purged from the Orange County portion of the CalGangs System database, the total number of identified gang members in Orange County has dropped 10% since the end of 1998 to 17,995.
One case handled by the District Attorney’s Gang Unit illustrates the need to continue to aggressively combat the heightened viciousness of current gang members. Three members of a Los Angeles/Lynwood gang came to Orange County to attend a party. They brought a loaded handgun with them. At the party, the suspect began confronting partygoers and challenging them to fights. The partygoers were not gang members and tried to ignore the suspect. He only became more combative. Near the end of the party, two African-American males arrived. Seeing them mingling with Hispanic females greatly agitated the suspect. He and his friends challenged the two men to a fight. When the men did not respond, the suspect pulled out the handgun and threatened them. One of the men, a corrections officer, displayed his badge and tried to calm the situation. The suspect responded by firing two shots at the officer, hitting him in the throat. He then turned and fired three shots at the other man, hitting him in the face. Both men were seriously wounded, but survived. The suspect was arrested three months later. A jury convicted him of attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation, along with gun enhancements. He was sentenced to life in prison, plus a consecutive sentence of 25 years to life.
This case illustrates how gang members can travel from adjoining areas, terrorize innocent citizens who in this case were just trying to celebrate a family birthday, and commit irrational and extremely violent acts. As long as these gangsters prey on our communities, the District Attorney’s Office will devote as many additional resources as possible to remove them from the streets of Orange County.
The numbers reported below include gang cases prosecuted by the District Attorney Gang Unit, the Tri-Agency Resource/Gang Enforcement Team (TARGET) Unit (see Part III), the Regional Gang Enforcement Team (RGET), the District Attorney’s Juvenile Unit, and regular felony prosecution units in the branch courts. Crimes prosecuted by the Gang, Regional Gang, and TARGET Units are all clearly gang crimes. Crime can be reported by the Juvenile Unit and by regular felony unit deputies as "gang-related." The criteria for marking a case as "gang-related" have changed over time, generally becoming more restrictive. Much of the change in total numbers appears to have been a result of these changing criteria. Two-thirds of the decrease between 1999 and 2000 occurred in the "gang-related" area. Indications are that even aside from changes in reporting, the number of filings in 2000 continues a decline that began in 1998.
FELONY FILINGS
Note: The "Other" category shown in these charts includes white, black and unidentified gangs.
You will note that tagger crews are identified as one gang type. For several years, anti-gang personnel have noted that tagger crews (groups of youths originally formed to vandalize property) were evolving into street gangs.
Probably the most significant effect of the additional resources devoted to combating gang activities is the substantial drop in reported gang-related homicides, as displayed in the Gang-Related Homicides chart. After a gradual decline between 1996 and 1998, the drop has increased markedly in the past two years.
The next chart reveals certain characteristics of the incidents recorded over the last four years. It displays not just crimes with arrests, but all incidents reported by police agencies as involving gangs. The data show continuing decreases in all major categories with one important exception: the number of non-gang victims increased in 1999, the last full year of data available. There is a small decline in the number of reported incidents, and only a very slight drop in the number of violent crime incidents. This seems to correspond with the more general reports mentioned earlier.
The chart below displays the number of offenses filed by prosecutors in all sections of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office against gang members in the past five years (not limited to Gang or TARGET unit prosecutors). Increases in 1997 numbers reflect changes in reporting procedures. Decreases in 1999 and 2000 are nearly entirely due to fewer crimes being labeled as "gang-related" by the "regular" units.
After seeming to be leveling off between 1998 and 1999, filings for "Violent/Weapons Offenses" declined again in 2000. They are now 35% lower than in 1996. After rising last year, homicide filings declined to their 1998 level. Filings for "serious" and drug offenses increased slightly, but are still substantially below the counts for 1996-1998. Both juvenile probation violation filings and "Other Offenses" again declined substantially.
The Gang and TARGET units conducted forty-five adult trials involving gang crimes, with a 93.3% conviction rate. Defendants entered an additional 1,216 guilty pleas. The proportion of pleas to trials is rising, indicating that investigators and prosecutors have prepared so thoroughly that the offender realizes that going to trial is probably useless.
Gang trials are very complex, difficult, and are often lengthy. Witnesses are reluctant to testify and gang members often try to shift responsibility, shade the truth by denying any knowledge of the incident, or fail to cooperate in any sense. The Office has aggressively pursued even the most difficult cases. Achievement of over a 90% conviction rate is a reflection of the dedication and professionalism of law enforcement gang unit personnel, the Probation Department staff involved in gang member supervision, and the prosecutors and District Attorney investigators working gang cases.
The number of Welfare and Institutions code section "707" Petitions filed (where, due to the seriousness of the charges, a request is made to try a juvenile in adult court) dropped to its lowest level in five years. The number of preliminary hearings also reached a new low. One reason for the decrease in "707" petitions is that Proposition 21 began to allow the direct filing of some juvenile cases in adult court, without juvenile court hearings. The Orange County District Attorney took a conservative approach to the use of direct filing. Only 18 juvenile defendants had their charges directly filed in 2000, but adding this to the 2000 "707" petitions makes the total match 1999 levels.
One trial stemmed from a drive-by murder of a gang member in May 1997. The primary trial issues were the identity of the shooter, and whether the defendant was an active gang member at the time of the shooting (thus having a gang motive to commit the crime). The sole witness was the victim’s brother-in-law, a convicted felon who testified that he had consumed a considerable amount of beer eight hours before the shooting. The prosecutor successfully argued for admission of evidence of two incidents that became "predicate offenses" for the gang crime and enhancements. The prosecutor also was able to introduce evidence of a prior assault with a deadly weapon on the victim by the defendant’s gang associates.
The defense called a college professor as an expert witness on gang culture. He opined that gangs are much more loosely organized than police say and therefore do not have group retaliatory motives. Further, he stated that police detain and harass urban youth for no reason and that the defendant did not display the characteristics of an active gang member. This allowed the prosecutor to introduce additional evidence of the defendant’s gang activities. The jury convicted the defendant of first-degree murder and found that allegations of shooting from a vehicle, using a firearm in the commission of a crime, and that the murder was committed for the benefit of the gang were all-true.
The number of gang members sentenced to state prison declined from the 1998-1999 level, but remained close to the 1995-1996 level. The number of California Youth Authority (CYA) commitments also substantially declined from 1999 (a 51% decrease). Nearly 300 active gang members were removed from the streets and sent to a state facility in 2000. Another 311 gang members spent part or all of 2000 in jail and 564 received commitments to local juvenile facilities. These were also decreases from previous years. The number of local juvenile facility sentencing dropped substantially, 62% lower than the 1996 level and 38% lower than the 1999 level. This latter drop is related to the drop in "gang-related" filings.
89% of those prosecuted for gang crimes were sentenced to custody in 2000, an increase from 1996.
The rate of defendants sentenced to state institutions has increased from about 16% of all sentences in 1996 to about 22% of all sentences in 2000.
Multiple Strategies. The effort to eliminate gang-involved crime in Orange County through prevention, intervention and suppression activities involves many agencies and organizations, both public and private. The Orange County Board of Supervisors has long encouraged a multi-agency, multi-faceted approach to combat gang crime. The following brief descriptions give the reader an overview of the resources that different county agencies have devoted to reduce gang crime. They do not adequately convey the extent of the commitment of time, energy, and expertise by the hundreds of persons involved.
District Attorney Gang Unit The earliest specialized unit for prosecuting gang cases was the District Attorney’s Gang Unit. It was created in 1988 to provide a vertical prosecution approach to all gang-involved, violent felony case filings. In the vertical prosecution approach, one attorney handles all aspects of a complex case, from review and filing through trial or plea to sentencing. At the present time there are 9 highly experienced attorneys handling gang cases. They are supported by 2 paralegals, a law office supervisor, 3 attorney clerks and an investigations unit consisting of a supervisor, 10 investigators and 2 investigative assistants. The Unit handles gang-motivated adult felony cases and serious juvenile gang cases, and files charges on all cases involving guns and gangs. The Victim-Witness Services Team (see next section) gives the prosecutors valuable assistance. Many gang cases involve multiple defendants and complex legal theories.
Gang Victim-Witness Services Team. The DA Gang Unit is assisted by a very unique and effective group, the Gang Victim-Witness Services team. This team, a part of Community Service Programs (CSP) Inc., consists of seven bilingual counselors who provide critical assistance both to crime victims and witnesses, and to investigators and prosecutors. Their state-certified Critical Incident Training enables them to respond to the scene of gang crime incidents. They establish relationships with witnesses and victims (particularly the relatives of homicide victims), directing them to available services and guiding them through the criminal justice system. Their relationship with witnesses is often the key component in getting court testimony enabling the prosecutor to secure a conviction. The team also performs prevention activities in neighborhoods highly victimized by gangs. They make presentations to groups and even go door-to-door discussing prevention issues such as improved lighting and security locks. In 1997 the team received the Crime Victim Service Award from US Attorney General Janet Reno, a federal award for outstanding assistance to law enforcement and to victims of crime.
Orange County Chiefs and Sheriff’s Association (OCCSA) A county wide Gang Strategy Steering Committee and five regional subcommittees were formed in the fall of 1992 by the Orange County Chiefs’ of Police and Sheriff’s Association. The committee consists of all of the chiefs of police, the sheriff, the district attorney, and the chief probation officer. During 2000, the OCCSA Steering Committee continued to provide countywide leadership and support to help integrate various innovative programs into an effective, cooperative, community approach to reduce gang crime. Some of these programs are discussed on the following pages.
CalGangs System The CalGangs System is a cooperative project between California local law enforcement agencies and the California Department of Justice. It was designed and implemented as an automated computer system containing information on criminal street gangs and gang members, via a statewide network of computers linked through Internet/Intranet technologies. Virtually every law enforcement agency with a computer and a modem can now have 24-hour access to this gang information.
The CalGangs system utilizes rigid guidelines that have to be followed before the inclusion of the data on any person as a "gang member." Approximately 90 percent of the current listings include persons who had admitted membership in a gang or tagger-crew. Only participating law enforcement agencies can enter or retrieve information. An administrator in the District Attorney’s Office controls the system. The system also is designed to periodically purge the information of individuals with no gang activity for the previous five years. In 2000, no gangs but 2,471 persons were purged from the database. The CalGangs system is an investigative tool designed to assist law enforcement, and is not a public document.
Gang Incident Tracking System (GITS). In 1992 the Orange County Chiefs’ of Police and Sheriff’s Association (OCCSA) established a research and documentation project known as GITS (Gang Incident Tracking System), with data collection beginning in 1994. The GITS database gathers information from gang-related arrest reports and criminal incident reports. Data regarding location, type of crime, victim-perpetrator relationships, and the existence of drug and weapon factors, provide increased understanding of the type of criminal activity directly associated with gangs. This information system is particularly valuable, as it is the only known database in California, which records information about ALL gang-related crimes, both solved and unsolved (traditionally, police and district attorney statistics focused only on gang cases where the perpetrator had been identified or arrested).
In 1995, the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California Irvine entered into an agreement with OCCSA to oversee and validate the GITS data collection from all 23 Orange County law enforcement agencies. UC Irvine researchers have been very diligent in encouraging data input by law enforcement agencies and in analyzing the results.
The TARGET Program In 1992 a new type of gang crime reduction program was created by Westminster’s Police Chief James Cook when the Westminster Police Department, the District Attorney’s Office and the Probation Department combined to form the Tri-Agency Resource/Gang Enforcement Team (TARGET). This innovative approach merged gang identification, enforcement, case preparation, witness support, prosecution, sentencing and probation into a single collaborative effort.
These team members are housed together at a local law enforcement facility in order to focus a highly coordinated team effort toward the gang problem in that jurisdiction. This model promotes maximum communication and coordination between agencies. By physically locating three or more agencies in the same room, both the frequency and quality of inter-agency communication and cooperation are dramatically enhanced. The personnel assigned to the Team are able to immediately share thoughts, strategies and case information on gang-related crime without delay
Regional Gang Enforcement Team (RGET). By May 1999, there was strong anecdotal evidence that a new breed of violent and non-territorial predatory gangs was committing an increasing amount of sophisticated and well-orchestrated gang crimes. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas decided that a more mobile, countywide effort was needed to supplement the work of the community-based TARGET program. The Bureau of Investigation in the District Attorney’s Office developed the Regional Gang Enforcement Team, which began operating in October 1999.
As described in detail in Part II, the mission of RGET is to investigate and reduce crimes committed by gangs that claim financial, rather than physical, territory. Homicides, murders for hire, kidnapping for ransom, home invasion robbery and extortion are crimes focused on by RGET investigators. Team members conduct surveillance, serve warrants, develop and maintain cooperative witnesses, and engage in both traditional and non-traditional investigative techniques in cooperation with state and federal prosecutors. The Team also shares information with numerous local, state and federal agencies, coordinating or assisting in these investigations as required by mutual concerns.
Multi-Component Grants. In addition to the above-mentioned programs, the District Attorney’s Office currently is participating in three grant-funded, gang violence suppression programs administered by California’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning (OCJP). These multi-component grants involve District Attorney prosecutors and investigators working in partnership with police agencies, the Probation Department, educators and prevention-oriented community-based organizations in the cities of Fullerton, La Habra and Santa Ana. These partnerships provide proven programs for combating gang violence. The grants run in three- year cycles that continue through June 30, 2001. Renewal applications have been submitted.
Conclusion
While substantial progress against gang crime has been made, a significant problem still exists, and the county will continue to devote as many resources as possible to further the reduction of gang-based crime.
PART II: THE REGIONAL GANG ENFORCEMENT TEAM
The Regional Gang Enforcement Team (RGET) is a coordinated task force whose mission is to proactively investigate and reduce violent and other serious crimes committed by gang members and gangs that claim financial territory. RGET concentrates on the more sophisticated gangs and hardened career criminals who are not bound by neighborhoods claimed by territorial and youth gangs. The very mobility of this category of gang makes them difficult targets for municipalities, restricted by jurisdictional boundaries. The crimes that RGET investigates include (but are not limited to): homicide, murder for hire, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, home invasion and other robberies.
To further RGET investigations, task force members conduct surveillance, serve search and arrest warrants and engage in traditional and non-traditional investigative techniques in cooperation with state and federal prosecutors. Investigations of this type of criminal activity take patience and sophistication. This unit shares information regarding on-going investigations with outside agencies involving matters of mutual concern. In 2000, much of the information sharing involved Asian gangs.
RGET became operational on October 1, 1999. Agencies involved in this program include the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the Orange County Probation Department, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, various Police Departments (Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and Westminster), the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. An Orange County District Attorney’s supervising investigator directs the RGET personnel. The unit maintains a working relationship with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in cases deemed appropriate for federal prosecution. Team members work together in the same room at an off-site facility, thereby promoting maximum communication and minimum delay in formulating strategies to deal with these mobile, predatory groups.
During 2000 the team opened 44 cases. Team investigators made 18 arrests for murder/attempt murder and murder-for-hire in RGET cases, and in support of other agencies. Through undercover operations, they intervened before home-invasion robberies and murders could take place. The team served 26 search warrants on RGET cases and 19 search warrants in support of other law enforcement operations. Also, 14 guns and machine guns and 3 silencers were seized. Team members devoted 3,927 hours in direct support to other agencies, including DEA, FBI, ATF and U.S. Customs.
The team also cooperated in an investigation with the Sheriff’s Department and the police departments of Anaheim, Westminster, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Irvine, and Tustin. The team has seized illegal weapons and narcotics. In December, it made what is believed to be the largest seizure of methamphetamine ice in the history of the state. It worked with other agencies to develop sufficient evidence to file murder charges against 11 suspects in previously unsolved homicides.
One example of the type of investigation that RGET was designed to perform is illustrated with a case that culminated on the evening before Thanksgiving. RGET developed information about a home-invasion robbery team. Through various methods the team was able to ascertain specific details. These led to a surveillance of one of the robbery suspects as he was "casing" a dummy location to rob. The suspects were fed "facts" as to when the fictitious victim would be at the location. Immediately upon receiving this information, the suspects left their house and picked up a second car. The Santa Ana Police Department’s SWAT team stopped the suspects as they neared the dummy location. Two handguns, gloves, masks, a roll of duct tape and plastic handcuffs were recovered from one of the vehicles. Conspiracy charges have been filed against these defendants. This is a prime example of the type of case that RGET was formed to investigate; it involved three different Orange County police agencies in addition to RGET investigators.
Even though the unit was only formed at the end of 1999, the expertise and dedication of its members has enabled it to make a substantial contribution to the county’s multi-faceted approach to combating gang crime. Through the employment of innovative methods and the deployment of personnel into two squads, RGET expects to be even more productive in 2001.
PART III The Tri-Agency Resource/Gang Enforcement Team (TARGET) Program
The TARGET concept was initiated by Chief James Cook of Westminster PD, with the enthusiastic participation of the District Attorney’s Office and the Probation Department. After two very successful initial years in Westminster, the County Board of Supervisors became very interested in expanding the concept to additional areas of the county. During 1994, TARGET units were established in six new areas: the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana, and the South Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department covers 10 communities in the southern part of the county. Each program was modeled after the Westminster TARGET, with some modifications made to accommodate local law enforcement agency structures and local community needs.
The seven teams organized and began operations at various times throughout 1994, becoming fully operational by 1995. Three additional teams were added in Santa Ana, one in 1994, one in 1995, and one in 1996. A second team was added in Anaheim in 1996. A tri-city North County team began operating in Fullerton, Buena Park and La Habra in September 1998, expanding to Placentia in 1999. This brought the total at the end of 1999 to 12 TARGET teams in 8 cities and the communities of South County. These 12 teams continued operations in 2000, with additional expansion of the North County unit to include Brea and Yorba Linda.
In late 2000, the substantial decrease of gang activity in some cities allowed for some resources to be shifted, and Tustin joined the ranks of TARGET team jurisdictions with the creation of a part-time unit. The timing was right, because Tustin experienced three shootings at the end of October, two of them on Halloween. By year’s end, the newly formed Tustin TARGET unit already had thirteen "targets" in custody. Most of them were facing charges of attempted murder, assault, and/or conspiracy to commit murder.
The TARGET process involves quickly identifying the leaders of gangs, concentrating on them (targeting) for enforcement efforts, conducting searches, and making arrests. Police gang investigators are specially trained to deal with hostile or reluctant witnesses, and deputy district attorneys and district attorney investigators are experienced in vertically prosecuting cases through the court system. The deputy probation officer plays a vital role by enforcing the specialized "gang terms" conditions of probation imposed by the courts. The strategy of having all team members located together and sharing a high level of expertise in gang crime has led to dramatic results.
Two Notable TARGET Cases:
The Anaheim TARGET unit was involved in several important successful prosecutions during the year 2000. One case arose out of a shooting where an Anaheim gang member shot and killed a rival gang member and severely injured another. The incident occurred in territory of a gang allied with the victim’s gang. Through the efforts of the TARGET team, prosecutors were able to secure evidence that would later refute a self-defense argument the suspect would use at trial. A jury rejected the self-defense claim and convicted the suspect who was later sentenced to 90 years to life in state prison.
Santa Ana’s TARGET program operates under the name STOP (Street Terrorist Offender Program). One noteworthy case involved a gang member who was tried for shooting and killing a married, non-gang involved, female victim as she walked home with her family after buying ice cream. The fatal shot was an errant bullet fired in an attempt to kill a rival gang member. Although the central witness had disappeared, the case proceeded to jury trial. In a joint effort, and up against some severe time constraints, Santa Ana police officers and Orange County district attorney’s investigators worked tirelessly to secure witnesses from all over the U.S. for the trial. That, combined with using the spontaneous statements of the witness who disappeared, which the witness made to the police at the time of the shooting, brought a conviction for first degree murder, along with the street terrorism charge, a gun use enhancement, and gang crime enhancements.
CUMULATIVE SUMMARY OF TARGET PROGRAM ACHIEVEMENTS
Between the beginning of 1995 and the end of 1997, the number of TARGET units increased from 7 to 11. The 11 TARGET units were in place until September 1998, when a twelfth unit was added in North County. Many of the statistical changes between 1995 and 1998 are due to the expansion of teams. Some of the statistical changes since 1995 are due to revisions in reporting procedures.
The number of targeted gang members increased in 2000 for two main reasons. First, both the new Tustin TARGET team and the additional cities added to the North County TARGET team selected gang members to be monitored. Secondly, as hardcore, violent gang leaders and recidivists are prosecuted and incarcerated by the various TARGET teams, other gang members emerge to fill the gap. These emerging leaders are then targeted for incapacitation measures to prevent the gang from regaining the cohesiveness it lost with the initial removal of its leaders through TARGET team efforts. As a result of the above dynamics, the total number of identified, active gang member "targets" rose from 980 at the end of 1999 to 1,082 at the end of 2000, a 10% increase over the end of 1999. There were 245 formerly targeted gang members placed on inactive lists due to a lack of continued gang activity on their part at the end of 2000.
The number of arrests of "targeted" gang members in 2000 mirrored the drop in most gang crime. There were 10% fewer felony arrests and 39% fewer misdemeanor arrests in 2000 than in 1999. Arrests of non-targeted gang members (usually those accompanying arrested "targets") also dropped. Fewer arrests reflect the fact that the previous success of the TARGET program has already removed many of the most active gang leaders from the streets.
The most frequent arrest offenses include assault, narcotics possession or sales, weapon violations, and probation violations. Both weapon and narcotics offenses decreased, returning to 1996-1998 levels. The number of search warrants and searched locations slightly decreased from 1999 numbers. Both are still above 1998 levels. TARGET teams removed 189 more firearms from the streets of Orange County in 2000, bringing to over 1,100 the number removed in the past 5 years.
TARGET deputy district attorneys filed 534 criminal charges against targeted gang members, a 19% drop from 1999. This reflects the success of the multi-disciplinary TARGET concept in keeping the most active gang members off the streets. One hundred seventy-seven "targeted" defendants were sentenced to state institutions. Another 362 offenders were required to serve custody time in county facilities, also a decrease from 1999 These drops from 1999 were not unexpected, since many of the most violent gang members have already been removed from the community and sent to prison.
The TARGET probation officers cumulatively supervised a caseload of approximately 244 "targeted" gang members during 2000. The percentage on formal gang terms of probation was 88%. The TARGET probation officers also supervised approximately 201 "non-targeted " gang members. The caseload decline is welcomed as another indicator of the effectiveness of previously having sent many of the "targeted" gang leaders off to prison. The lower caseloads resulted in fewer total numbers of contacts and probation violation filings. This reduced workload in turn allowed for closer supervision of the gang members being monitored by the TARGET probation officers. The average gang member probationer was contacted 16 times by their TARGET probation officer during 2000.
CONCLUSION
While gang-involved crime still remains a very real problem facing the residents of Orange County, the District Attorney’s Office, county police agencies, the Sheriff’s Department, and the Probation Department have devoted significant resources to meet the challenge. The Board of Supervisors and the residents have warmly supported these efforts. The TARGET units, RGET program, and all other facets of the anti-gang effort have demonstrated that this extra devotion of resources is paying dividends. In TARGET, agencies strive to create a comprehensive, collaborative effort which features close communication and cooperation in specific communities. The RGET provides an effective, rapid, collaborative response to highly mobile and lethal gangs.
The statistics reported here indicate that this devotion of resources has had a significant impact in reducing gang crime, particularly violent crime. They also indicate that the continued development and dedication of substantial resources are needed, both to continue the gains already achieved and to combat a problem that still is far too large and significant to allow a relaxation of effort. The narratives of specific cases reinforce both the significance of removing these predators from our streets and the need for continued vigilance.
The effectiveness of this anti-gang effort is enhanced by the high level of professionalism and expertise of all members involved in the gang unit, the TARGET program, the Regional Gang Enforcement Team, and by all the dedicated personnel of the law enforcement agencies, probation, victim-witness, and the courts, who labor in these efforts. The large number of criminal gang members brought to justice in 2000 and removed from the streets is a testament to the vision and organizational abilities of the heads of the policing agencies, the District Attorney’s Office and the Probation Department, as well as to cooperation and assistance of the professionals directly working on anti-gang teams. Many residents of Orange County owe their ability to walk the streets and play in the parks in their neighborhoods in safety to the dedication and caring of these many individuals.
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