Fresh funds spur state gang crackdown

When there’s a spike in car thefts or a rise in drug deals, local police agencies depend on state investigators to gather information quickly to determine if street gangs are committing the crimes.

But Mesa and other police agencies are losing critical time because the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s gang squad is backed up with requests from across the state.

“In some cases, work doesn’t get done,” said DPS Cmdr. Dan Wells, who heads the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission.

But that’s expected to change. Spurred by a perceived increase in street gangs, the Legislature passed a measure last month that gives state police $2 million to aid enforcement and prosecution of gang members.

The bill also lets the state contract with a private company to track movements of known gang members across state lines. In addition, it give judges the power to tack on extra prison time for those convicted on gang-related charges.

However, critics argue that similar measures have been tried and failed in other parts of the country.

Currently, about 20,000 documented gang members are in about 2,500 Arizona gangs, according to state records. That number, Wells said, has been steadily rising during the past several years, although it has not yet reached the numbers once seen in the early 1990s.

Wells said he plans to use the money to hire six additional investigators who will research crime information that can help local agencies track street gangs.

Currently, there are three full-time crime researchers handling an increasing workload — sometime as many as 400 requests from police agencies a month — Wells said.

In general, they comb through information gathered from local police agencies and DPS gang officers and look for trends or characteristics that can help law enforcement catch criminals.

For example, if there’s a sharp rise in car thefts, DPS gang officers can take information to spot trends that might point to a certain gang or gang member.

“Sometimes it can take a while. We have to prioritize what cases we work on,” said Wells, referring to requests from other agencies.

Mesa police Sgt. Tony Ablos, who heads the gang enforcement task force, said it mostly relies on DPS for additional gang officers. But, he added that the agency’s intelligence gathering is essential. He said Mesa has about 2,000 documented gang members — and the numbers are growing.

Ablos said the number of Mesa gangs dropped in the early part of the decade, but the influx from California gangs has led to a rise during the past two years.

Officer Andrew Duncan of Gilbert said the town doesn’t have a gang problem, but added that information from DPS can help them solve crimes.

“Although we don’t have a gang problem, many times they come into Gilbert and commit crimes,” he said.

However, critics warn that investing money into a gang database is unwise.

Kevin Pranis, a research analyst for the Justice Policy Institute, said many times the databases are quickly outdated because men and women quickly move in and out of gangs.

“So now you’re stuck with a database that steers police resources in the wrong direction, toward people who are ex-gang members or who have been misidentified,” he said.

On average, Pranis said gang members join between the ages of 12 and 15 and stay for about a year. They leave, in part, because they get older and grow tired of the constant threat of violence.

Likewise, Pranis, who coauthored a paper looking at law enforcement tactics and sentencing policies for street gangs, said stiffening the penalties for gang-related crimes will have little effect on curbing violence.

He said most gang members are more worried about getting killed or injured by rival gang members than they are about criminal prosecution.

While Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas agrees the bill won’t solve the state’s gang problems, he said increased penalties will give his office a “bigger hammer” to punish offenders.

“I think most gang members are rational actors,” Thomas said. “And once they find out that penalties have gone up they’ll respond.”

How much additional money his office will get from the Legislature is unclear, but Thomas is hoping for the lion’s share because most of the state’s gang activity is located in the county.

Thomas said his office has 17 county prosecutors dedicated to street gangs, and these people work on more than 800 gang-related cases.