By Cheryl Lingo - The Reedley Exponent
Published: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The outcome of a year-long county-wide assessment of the gang problem in Fresno County is a five-year strategic plan that has the buy-in of the County Board of Supervisors, law enforcement agencies, school districts and other parties working to get a handle on a problem that threatens the quality of life of all Fresno County residents.
The declaration by the Board naming Oct. 2-9 Gang Awareness Week is a direct outcome of the Countywide Gang and Juvenile Delinquency Initiative, adopted in 2006 as a means to address the Board’s responses to a Grand Jury Report on Fresno County gang activity.
Several communities are holding events during the week but Reedley will get a head start on the activity with tonight’s Reedley Night Out. The annual event will send public safety employees out to 20 Neighborhood Watch areas to talk with residents and develop the rapport needed for a successful program. Community Services Officer Cyndee Trimble is coordinating the event that begins at 6 p.m. tonight.
Reedley Police Chief Steve Wright – who was a participant in the development of the county gang initiative – has said Neighborhood Watch programs are one of the most effective tools to help law enforcement agencies battle crime. He and other members of the department have met with several neighborhoods outside of the Watch program, including one neighborhood that provided information that lead to the quick arrest of a suspect who fired a weapon at a vehicle two weeks ago.
One of the findings of the gang initiative was that the historical law-enforcement-only approach to dealing with the problem isn’t enough for long term impact. “While suppression will squash immediate crime spikes and lock up violent gang members, it did little to prevent new gang members from “coming up the ranks’ or to provide alternatives for those seeking to leave the lifestyle.”
In Reedley, previous efforts to fight the gang problem centered on a few approaches, most of them focused on after-the-crime programs. One officer served on the Fresno County Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium (MAGEC) and an aggressive stance on graffiti removal was used. The Neighborhood Watch programs were another component, but with funding cuts and the shifting of police staff, the program had languished.
Since the Gang Initiative was put into place, Wright said other programs have been implemented that deal with gang members on another level. The Victim Offender Reconciliation Program and a tattoo removal program funded by a CALGRIP grant were put into effect most recently, and school resource officers will be teaching at local middle schools, thanks to another grant just received, Wright said.
County report details gang presence
Wright has been reluctant to discuss specifics of Reedley’s gangs, citing the need to avoid giving them a platform in the media, and to protect investigations underway, but the Gang Initiative includes detailed information about the identity and location of gangs throughout the county. The information was provided by law enforcement agencies and incorporated into the assessment report that was created through the efforts of Debra McKenzie, the coordinator for the Gang Initiative and the Fresno Countywide Gang Prevention Council.
McKenzie was hired by Fresno County in 2007 and worked with the California State University Fresno Foundation, Central Valley Health Policy Institute, Fresno State Criminology Department and several subcommittees of the Initiative to deliver the Gang Prevention Assessment Report and the subsequent five-year plan for how the County will respond to a growing gang problem.
The report – presented to the Board of Supervisors earlier this year – includes County-specific gang data – crimes, demographics, population and turf maps, interviews with current and former gang members, and surveys of community agencies and school staff. Key findings include:
• Gang involvement and crime is a regional issue that impacts the entire County.
• Every District has been persistently impacted by gang crime over the last five years.
• Gang prevention and intervention programs are limited in scope and number.
• Community perceptions are influenced primarily by media and guided by fear.
• The top three predictors for why Fresno County youth join a gang are poor self control, having a gang-involved father, and neighborhood disorder
As stated in the report, “Basically, what the gang prevention initiative comes down to is leveraging existing systems, preparing young people to be competent and productive members of society, and creating healthy communities vibrant with culture, social capital, economic/community development, strong families and safe neighborhoods. I think it’s what we all want for ourselves and something we all should be engaged in making happen.”
The report paints a grim picture for the county’s rural districts that are characterized by a high number of residents without a high school diploma and median household income levels about half of that in Fresno and Clovis.
District 4 – Sanger, Selma, Reedley, Parlier, Fowler, Orange Cove, Kingsburg, Coalinga, Huron, Burrell, Caruthers, Five points, Laton, Riverdale, Del Reym, Lanare, Raisin City, Malaga – the median household income level is $38,266 (source: 2000 U.S. Census). There were 4.1 active alcohol retail licenses per 1,000 population, the highest of the five districts.
At the time the report was compiled, District 4 had an estimated gang population of 4,150 with 31 named gangs that exist in nearly all of the 18 communities. In Reedley, as a percent of the general population gangs represent 1.66 percent. That compares favorably to Orange Cove’s 5.80 percent, Sanger’s 2.50 percent, and Parlier’s 1.90 percent. It is about on par with Selma and Fresno’s 1.59 percent.
While other cities have gang populations spread throughout the community, the bulk of Reedley’s known gang members reside within the area now identified in the city’s gang injunction area. The injunction is against the Norteno gang Varrio Eastside Reedley, but the assessment report identified three Sureno gangs in the community: Barrio Los Arres, Barrio Los Padrinos and Reedley Sur gangs.
However, recent events show that gang crimes are being exported outside the area.
While the make up of gangs varies throughout the five districts, no district has been spared an increasing number of gang-related incidents. Over 14,000 were recorded between 2005 and 2009. As of June 2006, there were an estimated 12,000 documented gang members in Fresno County, but the number would likely double if the undocumented members were included, according to the Gang Prevention Council website. Those members belong to about 220 different gangs.
The full report is available on the County’s website at www.fcgpc.org.
Board of Supervisors supports gang awareness
A press release from the Fresno County Board of Supervisors about the proclamation of Oct. 2-9 as “Fresno County Gang Prevention Week” said the event recognizes that small cities and communities are as vulnerable as large cities when it comes to the effects of gang violence on public health and quality of life.
“The Fresno County Gang & Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Initiative, Never Give Up!focuses on the common vision that no one strategy is going to eliminate the problem and to that end, a comprehensive model is the best chance we have to prevent young people from joining a gang in the first place thereby reducing gang violence.”
District 4 representative and Fresno County Board of Supervisors chairman Judy Case said, “It is far more cost effective to prevent a young person from joining a gang than to prosecute and incarcerate a gang-involved youth. Our board is very committed to this effort and recognizes that everyone holds a piece to the answer in creating environments where Fresno County youth choose not to join a gang.”
