County Gang Crime--by the Numbers : Survey: Attempt to create database for authorities shows activity is not centered on drugs and not confined to cities.

IRVINE —  Serious crimes by gang members most often victimize average people--except for homicides, which are usually committed against other gang members, according to a police tabulation of gang-related incidents released Monday.

To authorities’ surprise, the countywide survey of 1,711 gang incidents tracked by police in the first half of 1994 also showed that gang crime is not centered on drug sales or drug-related activity.

In addition, the survey found that nearly half of these incidents were committed by adults, and that the most common crimes were those directed against people--including murders, assaults, drive-by shootings and robberies.

The survey, launched by the Orange County Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Assn. last year, marks the first attempt to compile Orange County gang incidents to create a database for guiding and measuring efforts to fight gang crime, said Westminster Police Chief James Cook, who heads the group’s anti-gang committee.

“The community or innocent victims are the ones who suffer from gang violence,” Cook said at a news conference called to announce the results for the first six months of 1994. The session was attended by more than two dozen police chiefs, county law-enforcement officials and local elected officials.

The report--based on figures from all 31 cities and unincorporated county land--makes no attempt to conclude whether current efforts to curb gangs are working. But it paints a picture of gang crime that penetrates throughout the county and is both more violent and complex than law-enforcement officials had thought, authorities said. About 300 Orange County gangs include an estimated 18,000 members, officials said.

The survey analyzed gang-related incidents through June, finding an average of 285 a month. Each incident may involve several crimes. Crimes were included in the database if the investigating officers concluded it was a gang-related incident.

Police classify a crime as gang- related based on a number of ground rules, including whether a suspect admits to gang membership, has been identified as a gang member by a reliable informant or associates with and dresses like a gang member. Community groups have sometimes criticized police as being too quick to label some incidents as gang-related.

In finding that gang crime has a significant impact on people who are uninvolved with gangs, the study made an effort to identify the relationship between victims and suspects in serious crimes, such as robberies, assaults and murders. In the 885 cases where that relationship was known, 58% involved “an innocent or unintended victim,” the report said.

Interestingly, that number dropped drastically when it came to murder, where rival gang members were victims in all but four of the 22 homicides involving gang members in the first six months of 1994. (In the first nine months of 1994, there were 42 gang-related murders. There were 74 in all of 1993.)

The report also found that 52% of gang crime can be classified as crimes against persons--such as assault and robbery--and that 45% were property crimes, such as tagging and vandalism.

Authorities said many law-enforcement officials previously had believed that gang attacks are directed primarily against rival groups.

Cook pointed to an incident during the weekend in which a Westminster woman was critically wounded when she was caught in a gang shootout in Santa Ana.

“All she was guilty of is being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Cook said. Police are most surprised that 3% of the cases, or 52 gang incidents, involved narcotics. Authorities had believed a large share of gang crime involved drug sales.

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“The public perception is that that was the driving force for the gangs,” said Sheriff Brad Gates. “It appears that’s not the reason for gang involvement in the community.”

Gates said authorities have also noticed a new generation of gang nomads: those with no attachment to a single group or home turf, motivated purely by moneymaking. Often, he said, these are the ones who carry out home-invasion robberies.

The data also produced some good news for police: arrests arising from gang incidents often take place within two days. About 45% of the incidents tabulated ended with an early arrest, a figure about twice that for other crimes, Cook said.

Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters said the countywide data show gang crime everywhere, not only in cities where gangs are entrenched.

Still, figures for Orange County pale in comparison with Los Angeles County, where more than 19,300 gang incidents were reported in the first six months of 1994. Of those, 250 were homicides--more than 10 times the 22 reported for Orange County. Orange County has 2.4 million people, while Los Angeles County has 8.8 million.

Law-enforcement officials in Orange County said having a tally of gang crime will help them deploy officers more effectively. But Cook and others said such efforts will not succeed without a multi-pronged approach that includes schools, community and business groups.

The database, called the gang incident tracking system, will be compiled and released quarterly and will be available to the public.

The police chiefs’ group had first debated whether to publicize the figures, Cook said, wondering whether a frequent report card on the extent of gang crime might depict police as ineffectual against gangs.

“It’s the first time we have had the data that says we have at least this much gang crime and can prove it,” Cook said in an interview. “We felt it was time the citizens of Orange County had the truth, and here’s the numbers.”

Gang Violence Targets People People rather than property were the main targets of gangs during the first half of 1994. Relatively few gang crimes involved drug sales, and the victims of their crimes were more often than not innocent parties. *Crime Targets People: 52% Drug sales: 3% Property: 45% *Victims* Innocent party: 58% Other: 12% Police officer: 2% Rival gang member: 17% Acquaintance: 11% * Serious crimes, excluding graffti and vadalism Source: Orange County Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Assn.