Gov. wants to track gang parolees
The $48-million proposal calls for electronic monitoring, but Democrats opponents cite the high cost and unproven results.
By Evan Halper
Times Staff Writer
May 26, 2007
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the state to track scores of violent gang parolees the way it does sex offenders, monitoring them with ankle devices and maintaining a statewide database that records their movements.
On Friday, the governor proposed extending a pilot program — used to monitor 20 gang members in San Bernardino — to Los Angeles, Sacramento and Fresno as part of what he called a comprehensive strategy to combat gang violence.
"We are targeting gangs inside and outside the prisons," Schwarzenegger said at an Oakland news conference.
"We will also treat convicted gang members like sex offenders," he said.
"The worst of the worst will get" global positioning system "bracelets so we know exactly where they are and what they are doing. If they try to recruit new members or terrorize people in the community, we will know where they are and we will be able to bust them."
The plan, while applauded by some law enforcement and community groups, received faint praise from the Democrat-dominated Legislature, where members advocate a more preventive approach to gang violence.
Some Democrats suggested that the governor's $48-million proposal, which also modestly increases spending on job training, witness protection and activities for at-risk youths, lacks substance.
They question whether spending scarce resources on ankle bracelets, in particular, is the most effective way to fight crime.
"These little shots here and there don't seem to make a difference," said Assemblywoman Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), head of the Select Committee on Youth Violence Prevention.
"You need a coordinated plan with an overall strategy," she said.
Caballero said the ankle bracelet technology "is untested and very expensive."
The bracelets are so costly, in fact, that the state can afford to contribute only 20 to gang prevention efforts in each of the three new cities targeted for the program. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary James Tilton said the expense comes mainly from two areas. Each black anklet is equipped with an antenna and costs more than $3,000 per year. The state also spends thousands of dollars more paying parole agents to monitor the movements that the bracelets record.
The state is already preoccupied with getting 3,000 of the bracelets on high-risk sex offenders, the result of an initiative approved by voters in November.
"What we're trying to do is move this program forward, to show it can be successful with gang members," Tilton said. He said that if the state succeeds, the program would be expanded.
Department officials say that in San Bernardino, the bracelets have helped police locate gang members at the scenes of several crimes, including a carjacking, drug trafficking and shots fired at police officers.
The tracking device also helped police locate the suspect in the murder of a gang member who was wearing a bracelet by tracing where the victim had been before he was killed.
Since March 2006, the 20 devices have been used to monitor a total of 50 gang members in San Bernardino. Department officials say that more than half have been returned to custody for parole violations or other crimes.
The issue of gang violence has been prominent in the Capitol this year as the governor and legislators struggle to find solutions to what statistics show is a rapidly growing problem. Figures released by the administration show that gang-related crimes in Los Angeles were up 14% last year, even as overall crime declined. In Compton and Santa Ana, more than two of every three homicides recorded in 2005 were gang-related.
The state Department of Justice estimates that California has more than 420,000 gang members.
"The state must coordinate the fight against gangs," Schwarzenegger said.
"When we crack down in one area they pop up somewhere else…. We are telling the criminals the crackdown on them will not stop anymore at the city limits or the county line," Schwarzenegger said.
His plan includes the creation of a state anti-gang coordinator who would work with local agencies, as well as the creation of regional task forces and a centralized criminal intelligence and analysis unit that would track gang activity in the state's 22 prisons.
Caballero says some of the ideas merit consideration, but criticizes the overall plan as being light on prevention strategies such as job training and other social service programs.
She notes that in Los Angeles, city and county officials estimate that they use more than $900 million in local, state and federal money each year combating gang violence.
The governor's proposal to add $48 million in spending statewide, she said, "stops short of proposing significant new investment in anti-gang programs."
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