PLACENTIA : City to Create Drug, Gang Control Unit

Reacting to a string of stabbings and drive-by shootings that have plagued Placentia in the past year, the City Council has voted to form an eight-member drug and gang prevention committee.

Residents called on city leaders to take action earlier this month after the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old youth in the city’s La Jolla section. Police believe that the shooting was gang-related.

In another homicide this year, a bystander was killed in a wave of gang violence shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day. More than a dozen shootings and stabbings with less serious injuries have been reported as well this year.

At a council meeting July 2, Melissa Albidrez, a resident of the Santa Fe neighborhood, called on city leaders to take action, such as creating youth and parental counseling programs and hiring more bilingual police officers. Mayor Arthur G. Newton proposed the committee, expected to be formed within the next two weeks.

The committee will include five community members and one member each from the Police Department, the Recreation and Human Services Department and the local school district.

Even so, Councilwoman Maria Moreno said she would like the committee to include a representative from the city’s Atwood, Santa Fe and La Jolla neighborhoods, possibly by adding three members to the panel.

“It gives me encouragement and hope to see that the wheels of our government are moving forward,� Rod Jimenez, a longtime resident of the La Jolla neighborhood, told the council.

Gang members “just shoot at random without care for life and limb,� Jimenez added. “They don’t care if they are shot at. . . . Never in my life did I realize we would have a problem such as this.�

The committee is expected to work with the Police Department and the Recreation and Human Services Department, along with a two-officer team formed in the spring to specialize in gang problems.