Helping them early on

ORANGE — The scene Thursday night at the Sheriff’s Department training facility resembled the calm before the storm.

Illuminated by flood lights from the command post, more than a hundred officers, investigators and probation officers sipped coffee, ate danishes and told jokes in the parking lot. They were moments from fanning out for their night’s mission: Round up all juveniles found loitering in the streets after curfew, bring them back and call their parents. It was 9:30 p.m.

Their curfew-enforcement sweep was the largest ever conducted by county authorities.

“It helps society when these kids do what they’re supposed to do, then they can be productive members of society,” said Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas.

The importance of their mission couldn’t be clearer, he said.

Minutes earlier, the district attorney got word that a gang shooting had occurred.

Officers had two rules when enforcing each city’s respective curfew laws: Don’t pick up anyone after 12:30 a.m., and don’t bring in anyone younger than 8.

The latter rule may seem surprising, but during a similar, smaller-scale operation in May with Anaheim police, officers found a pair of 6- and 7-year-old siblings on the street, said Farrah Emami, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. Officers simply took the children home in that case, she said.

About 10 p.m.

Maybe it was the drizzle earlier in the day, or the chilly weather, but Costa Mesa gang officers met an unusually quiet night in the city. It looked encouraging early for police when they stopped a 16-year-old boy on his bike. He had a bottle of stolen vodka, a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of pills with him.

For a while, that was it. Costa Mesa gang Det. David Sevilla continually found the city’s busier gang hubs quiet.

“All you hear is crickets,” he said, as he and probation officer Jessica Johnson walked the neighborhood off Mission Drive and La Salle Avenue.

One pass through an alley off Valencia Street turned up nothing but closed garages and lit bedroom windows. The alley was busier, though, on a second pass about 11:30 p.m.

A group of three walking away caught Johnson and Sevilla’s eye.

The two officers approached and stopped the youthful-looking group. It was two men and a girl. Though none had IDs, when their names were run through the Police Department’s system the check revealed that the men were 18 and 20 years old.

But the girl, whose name is being withheld because of her age, was less than cooperative.

After twice lying about her age through slurred speech, she finally confessed to being 17. The mug she was carrying also had some vodka in it, not the nail polish remover she originally told officers. The two men were sent on their way. The girl insulted, threatened and cussed at the officers during the ride back to the training facility.

All the children’s parents were called to come pick them up.

‘I hope it makes a difference’

Authorities detained 42 juveniles by the end of the operation. None of the agencies involved used extra officers for overtime pay, officials said.

The detained juveniles had their names recorded for county records and were searched then placed on a prisoner transport bus until their parents arrived.

It was a scene of organized chaos as kids were sporadically dropped off and processed, and parents were awakened to phone calls or alerted by knocks on the door by police.

Once the parents and juveniles were reunited, they met with probation officers who warned them both about the dangers of being out past curfew. Poster boards with photos of killed or injured juveniles, many of them gang members, were posted to illustrate the point.

“I hope it makes a difference for parents like me who are struggling,” said Sydney, a Costa Mesa mother who asked that her last name not be used.

Her son, Alex, 16, was stopped riding his bicycle just a stone’s throw away from his home, he said. He is not a gang member.

Looking at the dozens of other parents, Sydney continued: “They’re not all bad parents. I’ve felt really helpless sometimes. There’s only so much you can do.”

The juveniles weren’t the only ones lectured. The last stop in the line was for parents, who were given information on classes to help them better deal with their kids.

For his part, Alex said he’s gotten the message. He never thought he would get stopped being out past Costa Mesa’s 10 p.m. curfew.

“Yeah, I’m going home by curfew,” he said.