Thursday, May 10, 2007
How Costa Mesa gang unit tackles its job
Sgt. Paul Beckman and his team of seven study gangs to find ways to reduce their influence in Costa Mesa.
By NIYAZ PIRANI
STAFF WRITER
It's a Friday night in Costa Mesa and Sgt. Paul Beckman, head of the city's gang detail, is cruising the city's streets looking for some activity – any activity. Officers in other units have already confiscated a sawed-off shotgun during a traffic stop; another person was found holding ice-cold crystal meth, wrapped up nicely in a black plastic bag, in the Shalimar neighborhood.

But this, a call about two people spray-painting an alley on Harbor Boulevard, is the first time Beckman's seen action in a few hours. Within minutes, he's on the scene.

He flips on his flashlight and is snaking his way around the back of a shopping plaza in search of the taggers. The suspects, reportedly wearing black-hooded sweatshirts, are somewhere in the vicinity. Above, a police helicopter is surveying the area and catches Beckman in its sights. He points the light to the sky, and the chopper continues its work.

Beckman, a 12-year veteran of the force, is still in pursuit when his earpiece relays the news: the suspects have been apprehended. Now, police surround two men on the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Mesa Verde Drive. Beckman continues to search for, and then finds, the alley that was just "bombed."
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Graffiti litters the walls. The smell of fresh paint is still pungent in the air. Sloppy scribbles of names and a crude drawing of an elephant mar the narrow alley.

"Tagging is such a visible crime in the community that it's important to do what we can to discourage that particular act," said Beckman, later in an interview. "The possibility exists that a tagging crew could develop beyond just graffiti and fall into more serious criminal acts as a group."

Knowing your subject

Gang culture emerged in the mid- to late-1980s in Costa Mesa's neighborhoods. Some of the gangs began as party crews that would hang out together, but over time, they became involved in criminal matters, Beckman said.

The gang unit was created in the early 1990s in response to the emerging trend.

It is the job of Beckman and his team of six officers and one probation officer to know everything about gangs.

Currently, there are seven gangs – whose names have been withheld at the request of the police department – in Costa Mesa. Three have "feeder" gangs made up of younger kids who could eventually become gang members themselves. Six of the seven gangs, which stay mostly to the Westside neighborhood, claim ties with a faction of Mexican gang families called the Sureños.

In 2006, gangs were responsible for 2,034 graffiti incidents, the most common of Costa Mesa gang crimes. Gang activity also led to 225 arrests last year, 120 of which were felonies, which range from assault and battery to grand theft and murder.

A recent gang report presented to Costa Mesa City Council revealed there are about 300 gang members in Costa Mesa, but 150 are considered inactive due to incarceration or because they are non-active participants. About 90 percent of them live in the city but many move often because they don't have deep-rooted ties to gang life here.

"We don't have a real long multi-generational gang culture, so we have a better chance of heavy enforcement (succeeding) on members that are there – or possibly some intervention to steer them away from gangs," Beckman said.

Enforcement and intervention

Much of what the gang unit does is monitor and investigate gang-related activity, but it also participates in community programs aimed at preventing gang involvement and violence.

Through maintaining a visible presence in the city via community and one-on-one education, Beckman and his crew hope to slow the formation of new gangs and the recruitment of new gang members. They do this by looking at where they can reach youth first: at school.

By working with school resource officers, the unit gathers intelligence to curb gang activity on campus and at home. Sometimes, the officers will even contact parents if they have suspicions about a certain student, simply to educate the parent on signs of gang involvement.

"As the name says, we have many resources available for all of the children," said Senior Officer Jess Gilman, the school resource officer at Estancia High School and Tewinkle Middle School. "The good children need support and people they can look up to and count on. The ones that are in gangs, individually they're wonderful children for the most part, but as a group, they tend to make poor decisions."

For its part, the city council is looking into stricter laws regarding truancy and graffiti to reduce youth crime. The city already offers rewards to residents who assist in the arrest of vandals.

As part of its long-term plans, the gang unit is in the process of acquiring a district attorney and a district attorney investigator to help prosecute cases. Beckman also hopes that installing more cameras in the city will help monitor trouble areas and lead to arrests.

"Having a gang unit is vital. The typical patrolmen won't have the knowledge of individual gangsters," Gilman said.

"Just like we have people in the detective bureau that specialize in economic crimes like check fraud, identity fraud and credit card theft, we need the folks with the gang expertise on the streets."


Contact the writer: 714-445-6689 or npirani@ocregister.com