65A - PRELIM ACTION PLAN - Laserfiche WebLink

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ANTI-GANG PLAN The City of Santa Ana experienced an increase in gang crime in 2006 by 12 percent while the overall major crime decreased by 12.5 percent. Gangs are responsible for over 75 percent of our homicides and more than 70 percent of the shootings in the City. Santa Ana is not alone in the violent crime increase. The Police Executive Research Forum has been studying the alarming trends of violent crime in the United States. Nationally, violent crime increased last year, and many cities experienced double digit or even triple digit increases in homicides and other violent offenses. In February of this year, the Santa Ana City Council established the Early Prevention and Intervention Commission (EPIC) to address gang crime and gang-related violence using public and private partnerships. The Santa Ana Police Department uses a team approach to suppress gang activity. In 2006, the Santa Ana PD with help from the Orange County District Attorney's office, and the Santa Ana City Attorney's office implemented the first gang injunction in Orange County. Our Department is also in the early stages of establishing a Police Athletic League (PAL) to mentor Santa Ana youth. Santa Ana PD, in partnership with the Orange County District Attorney and Orange County Probation, has three tri-agency resource/gang enforcement teams (TARGET), which are housed within the Santa Ana police facility. The TARGET concept is a highly specialized team approach focusing on hard-core violent repeat gang offenders who possess leadership positions in criminal street gangs. TARGET'S goal is to incarcerate hard-core gang members before they commit further violent acts. Lessons learned have shown that neighborhoods where gangs dominate are victims of all types of crimes, not only the violent. As a result in addition to efforts such as TARGET, Santa Ana has a Street Terrorist Offender Program (STOP). STOP is currently comprised of six gang detectives who have a responsibility for monitoring and apprehending over 278 gang members who are currently on the TARGET list. An increase in proposed funding would assist the Department in establishing a new STOP team and strategies in the most gang-dominated neighborhoods in Santa Ana. These neighborhoods would be provided with gang prevention, intervention, and suppression services. These evidence-based programs are proven strategies that would build the community's capacity to reject gang activity and gang involvement. Budget Request: • One police sergeant; • Ten gang detectives. The detectives will be deployed among the Gang Assault unit (1), Graffiti Task Force (1) and the Street Terrorist Offender Program (8). The primary focus will be on establishing an additional uniform field team which will have suppression detectives working primarily in the evening hours when gang activity is the highest. This new team will work in conjunction with our existing STOP Team and Career Criminal Unit to address the approximate 3800 gang members and 90 individual gangs. They will be selected among the current officers who have gang expertise. These new detectives, in addition to their enforcement activities, will work closely with the neighborhoods that have been identified to ensure our efforts are targeted in the neighborhoods that are adversely impacted by gang activities. 65A-2