http://www.smdailyjournal.org/article.c ... ryID=44366
Friday June 24, 2005

Youth gangs surge
By Dana Yates, Daily Journal Staff

Youth gangs are on the rise and the San Mateo County civil grand jury yesterday recommended a focused county-wide effort to curb the growth as summer begins and law enforcement officials brace for an increase in crime.

The report recommends the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Don Horsley provide a centralized clearing-house of gang-related programs, better collection of data related to gangs and a confidential hotline for reporting suspected gang activity. The grand jury also calls on school districts to educate parents and staff about gangs and encourage schools to establish gang-prevention programs.

In seeking data to support its work, the grand jury found that accurate statistics do not exist. In 1999, more than 3,000 gang members and 70 gangs were estimated to exist in San Mateo County. Since that time, the discontinuation of a full-time gang task force has led to an absence of reliable data while violent gang behavior continues to grow, according to the report.

San Mateo County gang activity picked up last summer with waves of crime happening in East Palo Alto, San Mateo and San Bruno. Like last year, the Sheriff’s Office will launch “operation safe summer,� a task force of police officers from many of the county’s 23 law enforcement agencies, said Sheriff Don Horsley.

The officers are able to track gang activity by sharing information specific to the cities they represent.

“We do a lot of the gang enforcement and for a clearing-house, we really rely a lot on juvenile probation. We have a good handle on kids who are involved in gangs,� Horsley said.

Enforcement is only “part of the answer,� he added.

Law enforcement agencies also try to prevent students from entering gangs by providing other programs through police activity leagues. School resource officers help identify problems on school campuses and nonprofits offer after-school homework help and cultural programs.

“What we cannot do is put the resources into class rooms until society as a whole realizes the problem,� Horsley said.

The grand jury report also recommends schools make a greater effort to encourage gang prevention programs.

School officials already meet monthly with law enforcement, pay 40 percent of the salaries of school resource officers and the San Mateo-Union High School District has instituted an anonymous tip line to identify potentially dangerous students or situations on their campuses.

Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.