Leaders positive on plan to fight gangs

Costa Mesa City Council members seemed to favor a proposed gang enforcement and prevention initiative when they took their first public crack at it on Tuesday.

As part of those efforts, local school officials hope the city will take the lead in cracking down on truancy, and that Newport Beach will follow suit.

The city has grappled with a growing gang problem, reflected in a major jump in crimes such as robberies and assaults between 2005 and 2006.

Costa Mesa Police Chief Christopher Shawkey recommends a comprehensive strategy to address the gang problem. He told the council Tuesday that although enforcement is the “more exciting and glamorous” aspect of fighting gangs, prevention and intervention are also key.

“We have an obligation to present to the council a complete package. We can’t do it piecemeal,” he said.

A report Shawkey released last week proposed adding two school resource officers to the police force, continuing to fund a full-time probation officer, installing crime surveillance cameras, and beefing up prevention programs by working with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Much of what the report suggests is already in place, such as the probation officer, or is in the works, Mayor Allan Mansoor pointed out.

The council will vote later on a new truancy ordinance that would let officers give citations to students caught out of school, return them to the school or their parents, and require the parents and students to show up in court.

Funding for some parts of the gang initiative will be discussed along with the annual budget in the next few months.

“Newport Beach has been a little hesitant to enforce this law,” said Jane Garland, who directs the gang prevention program Project ASK for the school district. “We’re hoping you guys can be the groundbreakers…. Newport Beach has the same problem and a lot of your kids go [to schools] there.”

Mansoor and council members Eric Bever and Wendy Leece voted down a proposal in January to work with the school district on Project ASK.

They seemed more amenable to the proposal Tuesday, but Mansoor stressed the need for quantifiable results to show the program works.

Bever liked the fact that the school district is willing to pay for one of the two new school resource officers and match the city’s $65,000 to hire a gang-intervention specialist.

“That makes me feel a lot better about this approach to things. That really resolved a lot of my concerns,” Bever said.

Costa Mesa Police Capt. Ron Smith explained that the city’s gang problem mostly involves people in their teens and 20s — it isn’t intergenerational, and it’s not entrenched in particular neighborhoods like in some parts of Los Angeles.

GANG HOTLINE

Costa Mesa police are taking a variety of approaches to solve the city’s gang problem. One is a gang hotline started in the last several weeks. Residents are encouraged to call if they have any gang-related information that’s not an emergency. Emergency calls, such as about crimes in progress, should still go to 911. The gang hotline number is (714) 754-5053.