Assessing gang injunctions, They haven’t delivered on lofty predictions
Tuesday, November 18, 2003- Long Beach’s gang injunctions, failing to curb criminal activity in 8 out of 10 gang members who have been served with the court orders in recent years, have not lived up to their initial hype. They may still be doing some good, though, at least for now.
An report on two Long Beach gang injunctions by the Press- Telegram’s Wendy Thomas Russell Sunday and Monday showed that the majority of Long Beach gang members served with the injunctions in recent years have not changed their criminal behaviors. Anecdotal reports from police officers and prosecutors were more positive. But as Russell’s report explained, it is difficult to assess the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of injunctions because of a lack of research, limited accountability, no agreed-upon measure of success, and no standardized enforcement among police. Also uncertain is the true cost of Long Beach’s gang injunctions.
Which doesn’t mean that Long Beach’s injunctions have failed. By some measurements they may be succeeding. And, to some degree, they appear to be helping police officers do their jobs.
The injunctions clearly have not delivered on the lofty promises made by some city officials. City Prosecutor Tom Reeves’ 2001 claim that an injunction against the East Side Longos was “the beginning of disarmament” that would “take the guns out of the hands of the East Side Longos” and bring “peace on our streets” now seems dramatically inflated. Reeves revised himself in a more recent interview, saying that injunctions are “not the answer; it’s a tool.”
So if injunctions aren’t the answer, are they still worthwhile? It appears so, at least for now.
Gang injunctions are court orders against known gang members that increase criminal penalties for misdemeanor crimes such as drinking in public and selling drugs, and prohibit some activities that would otherwise be legal, such as gathering in public with other gang members or flashing hand signals.
{BYLINE}By and large Long Beach’s injunctions aren’t stopping the worst gang members from committing more crimes, and their direct effects on individual neighborhoods is uncertain. They do seem to be doing one thing well: Helping police on the street gain an advantage when they need to pry information out of gang members. When an officer spots a gang member violating the injunction, the threat of a night or two in jail is helpful in obtaining intelligence that the gang member might not otherwise spill, police said.
In that sense, the injunctions may be having an impact. The impact may also be slipping. As Long Beach Police Chief Tony Batts explained, gang injunctions lose their effectiveness over time as gang members become more savvy to them. Another consideration is the price: Unlike some laws, injunctions cost taxpayer money. Long Beach has been working with $95,000 in county funds, and there is staff time involved, although Reeves told the Press-Telegram that he doesn’t track how many hours he or his deputies spend drafting the injunctions and said it would be impossible to estimate the amount of time involved.
The most common description we now hear from police about gang injunctions is that they are “another tool in our toolbox.” That seems to be accurate. But it is a tool that requires ongoing taxpayer funding, and because of that it should be monitored more carefully by the city and county, with more accountability and defined parameters that would help the community determine whether the injunctions are functioning as expected.
The battle against street gangs is the most important one the Long Beach Police Department is now fighting. If the police believe injunctions are helping them in that fight, then Long Beach should keep them going for now, while tracking and assessing them more carefully and preparing to move on when they become outdated.
