The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Violent street gangs have flourished in Southern California over the past three decades as funding cuts have left police and prosecutors without enough manpower and resources, it was reported Monday.
Many law enforcement agencies have been caught off guard, but even police in inner-city areas where gangs have traditionally thrived have struggled to contain or reverse the dramatic growth in gang membership, according to the Daily News of Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles County, for example, the number of gang members in areas covered by sheriff’s officials has increased nearly 400 percent to about 57,000 since 1973, while sheriff’s and police department ranks have expanded only 44 percent and 22 percent, respectively, since 1975, the newspaper said.
“They multiply faster than we do,” said Deputy Chief Ron Bargeman of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Budget cutbacks have made fighting the epidemic even more difficult.
A county sheriff’s intervention program that provided 1,700 kids at 11 regional sites intensive counseling, mentoring and living skills training ended in July 2003 after the department received cuts of $166 million over two years.
Meanwhile, a program under which county prosecutors handle gang cases from start to finish in coordination with other agencies has been scaled back as federal and state funds have dried up. Six of its sites were on the verge of closing. The number of prosecutors in the county’s hard-core gang division has dropped from 62 to 45, officials said.
Similar funding difficulties have forced Ventura County authorities to eliminate the sheriff department’s 15-person gang unit, curtail patrols and grant early releases from jail.
“Our lack of resources, compounded by the California budget, has affected us so much that the criminal justice system is being decimated,” said Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton.
Los Angeles police Lt. Roger Murphy calls trying to control gang violence without adequate resources “triage police work.”
“If we could impact and deter some of the outrageous violence, that could cause a different feeling among young people in the community,” he said. “They don’t think they’re going to live that long.”