New Technology Aids Long Beach Police in Gang Enforcement

By BEATRIZ E. VALENZUELA | bvalenzuela@scng.com | San Bernardino Sun PUBLISHED: September 14, 2013 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: September 1, 2017 at 4:02 a.m.

LONG BEACH >> Even as opposition has risen against the use of gang injunctions by those who claim their sweeping nature violates the civil liberties of those living within their boundaries, a new technology developed by a local company is helping Long Beach authorities be more precise and effective in the way they target gang members.

The technology, called Laserfiche, allows officers in the field who enforce gang injunctions to be able to quickly confirm whether a detained person has been served and is subjected to the terms of the court orders.

“By using the Laserfiche technology, it allows patrol officers to look up gang members served with the injunction and it includes their pictures, names and other information,” said Long Beach gang Detective Chris Zamora.

The technology was developed by Bixby Knolls-based Laserfiche, which adapted one its products to be used by Long Beach police.

In addition, police and the City Prosecutor’s Office have developed a two-step screening process to identify gang members before subjecting them to an injunction.

One of the criticisms of gang injunctions has been that they give law enforcement sweeping discretion when identifying potential gang members. This can sometimes lead to nongang members being stopped, detained and searched or even cited or arrested under the terms of the injunctions, according to the Americans Civil Liberties Union. There is also great potential for racial profiling, with a particular impact on young people of color, according to the Northern California ACLU.

Long Beach police and the City Prosecutor’s Office say the two-step screening process that takes place before a person is ever served with injunction orders allows them to target the most violent and active gang members in the city.

Zamora, a gang expert with the police department, must first gather enough evidence and data before determining a person is a gang member, said Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert. Then a prosecutor independently investigates and gathers information to prove the potential target is a gang member. It is not until this two-step process is concluded that authorities will ask a court to formally identify a person as a gang member. That person is then served and is subject to the injunction terms.

Five injunctions are in place in the city, all of which are enforceable and three of which are being actively enforced.

Two of the first gang injunctions established in the city are in place on the Westside and are credited in part with helping lower the crime rate in an area that was plagued by gang-related criminal activity. The first two were established in 1997 and 1998 to quell the violence erupting between two warring gangs.

Residents who live near the injunction areas say the orders coupled with the opening of the west police station on Santa Fe Avenue have made a big difference in the neighborhood.

Tina Warshaw has lived in her Westside Long Beach home for nearly six decades. In that time she has seen the neighborhood change, and lately she says it’s been for the better.

“Ever since they put in that order and curfew and that police station, it’s been very different,” Warshaw said outside her home near Santa Fe Avenue and 20th Street near one of the injunction safe zones. A Long Beach patrol vehicle drove by her home as she chatted with a neighbor and friend. All commented on how much quieter the neighborhood has been in the last several years.

Last year, the crime rate in the Westside fell to levels that rival that of areas such as Belmont Shore, according to City Councilman James Johnson.

It was in 2009, after the fatal shooting of a Wilson High School honor student, 16-year-old Melody Ross, that the three remaining injunctions were obtained.

Some say the court orders have only a “modest” effect on crime.

“We only see a 5 to 8 percent reduction in overall crime in gang injunction areas,” said Cheryl Maxson, a professor at UC Irvine who has studied the effectiveness of gang injunctions.

However, in Long Beach, as the number of gang arrests steadily rose, Haubert said, the number of gang-related crimes decreased.

In 2009, 35 arrests were made in Long Beach for gang injunction violations. Last year that number rose to 269, according to Haubert. In 2010, gang-related shootings in the city dropped 13.5 percent, according to data from the City Prosecutor’s Office. That same year, the number of gang-related homicides decreased by slightly more than half.

Despite the encouraging numbers, both Haubert and Zamora say that combatting gangs is not as simple as placing areas of the city under injunctions.

“We came up with a multi-prong approach,” Haubert said.

Working with police authorities, community organizations and faith-based groups, the City Prosecutor’s Office, as part of the third component of its battle against gangs, has implemented a program that not only targets the most active and violent gang members but also helps them leave the gang life.

The injunctions are just one of the tools that fall under the plan’s suppression portion to fight back against gangs. The second component is intervention.

Working with local schools, the City Prosecutor’s Office created the Parent Accountability and Chronic Truancy (PACT) program to keep students in school. Authorities have also turned to various community groups to help pull gang members from their criminal lifestyles.

“The city of Long Beach has traditionally been heavy on gang enforcement with an anemic strategy for hope beyond gang life,” Pastor Gregory Sanders, president of the Long Beach Ministers Alliance, related in a written statement. “Previously our youth who made horrible association choices in the past remained frustrated as they looked for a future of growth, maturity and change.”

Those who leave a gang can be removed from the injunction list through the city’s Opt-Out program.

It requires petitioning the City Prosecutor’s Office after completing community service, securing two community sponsors, proving they are no longer active in the gang and attending school or obtaining full-time employment.

In the last two years, five people have successfully petitioned to be removed from the injunction list, Haubert said. About a dozen more cases are in the works.

“The city prosecutor’s Opt-Out program to remove from the gang injunctions those who no longer participate in gangs has been an amazing way to not only reduce crime but rebuild trust in a judicial system that was great at branding but weak at building,” Sanders said.

Contact Beatriz E. Valenzuela at 562-499-1466.