SANTA ANA : Anti-Gang Effort’s Critics Answered

Few dispute the success of the first phase of an experimental anti-crime program in Santa Ana called Operation Weed and Seed. Drug dealers have been shooed away by intensified police patrols in the central city neighborhood, and residents are telling police that they are beginning to feel safer.

But community and city officials conceded Thursday that the operation--one of 16 pilot projects nationwide--may have become a victim of its own success.

After making strides in “weeding” out the criminals, the program is running into criticism because most of the $1.1 million in federal funds will be spent on law enforcement, with only about $126,000 for the “seed” projects that some feel are essential to long-term success.

Critics complain that city officials, quick to devote resources to policing, have been slow to focus social services on the neighborhoods, as originally intended.

“The weed part has been a blazing success. The seed part has been a miserable failure,” said one community leader who asked not to be identified.

One supporter of the project, Santa Ana neighborhood activist Jim Walker, admits to confusion about the shortage of funds for the social services that are supposed to attack some of the root causes of crime--unemployment and a shortage of constructive activities for youths. “When you have a big W and a big S , you think (funding will be) 50-50,” Walker said.

But city and federal officials said Thursday that any confusion may stem from a breakdown in communication--that they never planned or expected that federal grants would fund the seed portion.

The goal of the 18-month program is to weed out the criminal element in the neighborhood bordered by McFadden Avenue and Sullivan, 1st and Raitt streets. The program then is to enter a second phase, with emphasis shifting to such efforts as job training and recreation.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Edward McGah said the $613,000 dispatched to Santa Ana for the first phase of the program came with strings attached--only activities related to law enforcement could be funded.

Although the spending restrictions have been removed from the remaining $487,000 that is expected to arrive next month, McGah added, local officials agreed that the focus should continue to be on law enforcement.

Meanwhile, the Police Department on Thursday released a six-month progress report showing that, compared to the same period last year, major crimes have dropped in the area at the same time that narcotics-related arrests have increased. The trend was the same for surrounding neighborhoods, according to the report.

“Our efforts to eliminate violent crime, drug trafficking and drug-related crime are resulting in a safer environment that is free of crime for the citizens in that area,” Police Chief Paul M. Walters said in a statement.

The money has been used to hire five police officers and a sergeant, a county probation officer, a deputy district attorney, a building code enforcement officer and a “victim-witness assistance” officer, and to acquire Police Department equipment, including three leased automobiles.

Through cost savings, the Police Department has found $126,000 that will be used for seed programs. Two will be run by the Santa Ana Unified School District and are designed to keep youths in school and provide guidance for 40 students who are “at risk” of gang participation. The third project will be an extensive survey of neighborhood needs, such as child care, English-as-a-second-language classes and transportation.