Grand Jury: San Bernardino County should review plan on gangs

dstrm300 Mon Jul 08, 2013 1:35 pm

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's and Probation departments should revisit their plan on gangs drafted in 2005 to determine if it has addressed the growing epidemic of gang activity countywide, the Grand Jury has recommended.
In 2005, gang warfare raged throughout the county. A migration of gang members and their families from Los Angeles to the High Desert in search of affordable housing presented a new problem for law enforcement. Gangs that were traditionally rivals formed alliances to combat homegrown gangs that had staked territory in the High Desert for decades, authorities said.
In response to the problem, a supervising probation officer and gang expert headed efforts to draft the 23-page plan, which recommended the formation of a centralized database for tracking gang crimes using GIS technology. The plan also called for establishing research-based programs for at-risk youths and forming partnerships to develop a better network of intelligence pertaining to gang members.
Since then, the county's gang population has doubled, from 362 documented gangs in 2005 to 722 in 2012. The Grand Jury attributes the county's extensive gang problems to its vast geographic area, low-cost housing, and socioeconomic conditions.
Police and probation officers, school officials and citizens should be working toward a goal of decreasing gang activity, with an emphasis on intelligence gathering, prevention and intervention. In
addition, a follow-up review of the 2005 plan should be revisited to see how many of the recommendations have since been implemented and to what degree they have been effective, the Grand Jury recommended in its report released June 28.

But things have changed drastically since 2005. The biggest economic slump since the Great Depression, coupled with a new state law that shifts supervision of parolees from the state to county probation departments, has put a strain, and a drain, on law enforcement resources.
"Generally, when those operating budgets go down and the (law enforcement) agency fields fewer officers, it can have a profound impact on that agency's ability to be proactive," said Chris Condon, spokesman for the county Probation Department.
He said the degree of gang problems varies from city to city,
"In the last eight years, there have been issues where gang-elated crimes have gone up, and there are some scenarios where gang crime has gone down. And it's difficult to tie it all to the economy," Condon said.
Prison realignment -- moving of prison inmates to county oversight -- is now at the forefront of the law enforcement agenda, at least for probation departments and sheriff's departments that oversee the local jails. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors just approved another $10 million for the expansion of the Adelanto Detention Center, which is designed for high-security inmates and will provide an additional 1,300 beds. Sheriff's officials say there will likely be a shifting around of inmates at all its jails to make the necessary accommodations.
A review of data gleaned from the county Probation Department showed that it supervises about 26,000 adult probation cases and 3,000 juvenile cases, with 20 percent of total probationers being gang members. A risk assessment found 58 percent of criminal offenders in the county have a risk of violence with gang ties and that is the most prevalent concern for probation officers, according to the Grand Jury report.
During its investigation, the Grand Jury visited multiple law enforcement agencies to get an idea of the gang problems specific to each jurisdiction. Fontana, for example, has been vexed with graffiti, which grew from an occasional gang member claiming territory to tagging crews vandalizing large areas on a regular basis. The High Desert continues to be a focus for the Sheriff's Department, where more than 700 gangs call home, according to the Grand Jury's report.
The Grand Jury also gave a nod to the District Attorney's Office, which it said has been successful in prosecuting gang members and using enhanced sentencing schemes to ensure more time behind bars for the most violent and threatening offenders.
Last year, San Bernardino County prosecutors secured 25 percent more state prison sentences against gang members for the first six months of 2012 than in all of 2011. Between January and June 2012, 158 gang members were sentenced to a cumulative total of 738 years in prison, the District Attorney's Office reported at the time.
Though the Grand Jury gave the county no deadline to respond to its findings and recommendations, Condon said his department will be more than happy to oblige, despite the current challenges facing the department due to prison realignment.
"If the Grand Jury thinks we should go back and take a look at it, we certainly will do that," he said.