COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Gang report offers multi-faceted approach

The Costa Mesa Police Department’s Gang Initiative Agenda Report, presented to the City Council on March 13, is perhaps the most comprehensive and persuasive staff report I’ve ever read — and I scrutinized many in my six years as a planning commissioner. I’ve been studying and discussing it with knowledgeable people for weeks in preparing to comment on it. Councilman Eric Bever’s recent — shall I say “provocative?” — comments have accelerated my timeline. Here’s how I see it.

The Police Department’s report revisits and significantly expands upon previous efforts in recommending and defending a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to reduce criminal street gangs, gang members and gang crime. It expresses a zero-tolerance philosophy for enforcement and recommends a well-researched intervention and prevention program as well. Capt. Ron Smith and Lt. Clay Epperson, principal authors of the report, and Chief Christopher Shawkey, who approved it, deserve our thanks for a professional job well done.

The report is 22 pages long and is far too detailed to analyze here. Those who want to debate it should read it and re-read it, as I have done. A phone number is provided for questions. It’s available on the city’s website as an agenda item for the March 13 study session or at the city clerk’s office.

Key recommendations in the report include:

1. Enhancement of enforcement strategies including a truancy enforcement ordinance (the so-called daytime curfew) and greater utilization of school resource officers.

2. Implementation of intervention and prevention strategies, the significant component being partnering with the school district’s Project ASK (Advocates Supporting Kids).

Regarding the enforcement program, the truancy ordinance seems to be the most controversial item, perhaps because it’s not well understood. The only difference between it and existing Costa Mesa Police Department truancy authority seems to be the issuance of citations that can result in fines or community service. The school district recognizes that it has been ineffective in this area and is committed to improving the process. One of the objectives of Project ASK is the development of a school and law enforcement partnership. The proposed truancy ordinance is modeled after one in Monrovia that has led to a reduction in daytime crime, including residential burglaries. Costa Mesa police plan to use the ordinance to focus, with the help of the school district’s database, on chronic truants.

Regarding the intervention and prevention program, the department’s report presents broad-based and convincing evidence that gang-enforcement programs alone don’t work. The report candidly looks at research that identifies what works and lists criteria for evaluating successful programs. The department’s proposed program is based upon the best practices of 29 successful programs and is committed to “operating gang prevention and intervention programs for which effectiveness can be empirically verified and validated.”

Some who oppose the inclusion of the intervention and prevention component of the department’s proposal characterize it as nothing more than holding the hand of a hardened criminal! Read the report and you will see that the real beneficiaries are kids as young as third-graders who are at risk and can be helped. I know. I’ve had personal experience as a volunteer in a Costa Mesa third-grade classroom that validates this premise. The teachers in the classroom are the early warning system. The police proposal can help these kids. The department’s report makes the point that a number of community groups, social services and schools have resources available to help but that no central entity exists to coordinate the access and utilization of those resources. The proposed gang interventionist would fulfill that role. The annual cost of the intervention and prevention program is less than the cost of housing one youthful offender for a year by the California Youth Authority. This is not “big government” interfering in our lives; this is good government, getting more bang for the buck!

Finally, I can’t conclude without commenting on Bever’s personal attack on Epperson’s credibility in writing most of the Intervention and Prevention program component of the department’s proposal. Bever is entitled to his opinion, and I’ll let him present his credentials supporting it.

Here are Epperson’s credentials: He grew up in Costa Mesa. He was a police cadet prior to joining the force 27 years ago. He is the highest-ranking police officer living in Costa Mesa; his kids attend our public schools. He holds a master’s degree in emergency services administration. He supervises the gang detail, is a court-qualified expert on gang crime, and lectures on the topic nationally. And lest I forget, he’s a Republican!

I think Bever owes Epperson an apology.

is a former Costa Mesa planning commissioner.