By Melinda Rogers
Salt Lake Tribune
SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — Detective Andrew Burton shines a flashlight on a wall behind a Smith’s grocery store, exposing a string of graffiti left by two feuding gangs.
One message broadcasts the mark of a sureño gang member. Next to it is a symbol left by a rival norteño gangster, who had carefully drawn a line over the sureño tag -- a sign of disrespect in the gang world.
Burton pulls out a camera, takes a photo, and logs the graffiti into a database. It’s a routine task for investigators like Burton, whose job is to monitor gang activity and work to suppress it.
But where Burton found the graffiti on a recent December night may come as a surprise to some Utahns: He works the gang beat in Summit County, and his latest graffiti find is near a Smith’s in Park City’s chic Redstone development.
“I don’t think people view this area as some place where gang members would come,” said Burton, a veteran investigator in charge of the county’s gang enforcement project.
Scant evidence of gangs could be found in Summit County towns such as Park City a decade ago. But now the county, like other rural areas in Utah, is feeling a trickle down effect from gang activity in Salt Lake County. The trend is one reason Gov. Jon Huntsman announced the formation of a statewide gang task force.
The group -- composed of members from law enforcement, the court system, treatment providers, schools and community groups -- will try to pinpoint gang activity in every corner of the state and develop a plan to quash it, said group co-chair Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller. The task force will also tackle how to apply gang prevention, intervention and suppression resources to rural areas like Summit County that aren’t used to dealing with gang problems.
Known for its posh ski resorts and glitzy film festivals, the county is seeing more crime linked to the underbelly of the gang lifestyle, said Burton. Such crimes include:
» Two gang-related homicides in the past five years
» The armed robbery of an ice cream shop in the Redstone development by gang members a year and a half ago.
» The 2006 stabbing of a Park City man by a 17-year-old female gang member
» At least one rape case at a hotel attributed to gangsters.
Gang officers are a regular presence at concerts and patrol bars known to attract gang members on Park City’s historic Main Street, Burton said.
Lured by selling drugs to a market saturated with tourists and wealthy residents, gangs increased their visibility in Summit County about 18 months ago, Burton said. Some have secured tourism-related jobs such as working as hotel shuttle drivers to make drug sales easier. Others have brought gang culture with them from California or the Midwest when moving to the area.
Salt Lake City and Ogden gangsters also commute to the county for “business,” bringing violence with them, Burton said. The county’s gang climate is more active than other cities that experience “spillover” gang activity from Salt Lake City. Summit County has recorded more new gang members in its database during the past year than communities such as Sandy, Draper, Holladay and South Jordan, said Burton, who works closely with the Salt Lake Area Gang Project.
There are now 120 documented gang members from 20 gangs with ties to Summit County. Another 60 people have been tagged as “persons of interest” who could meet the federal definition of a gang member and therefore earn a spot in the county’s gang database.
A year ago just 20 people were listed in Summit County’s database. The increase of gang members in the area is one reason the sheriff’s office took on the gang project run by Burton, who secured a grant from the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice to carry out the idea.
Part of the project pairs Burton and Vai Lealaitafea, a gang specialist with the Park City Police Department, with educators, parents and community groups. The two train people on indicators of gang activity in the hopes that if people recognize clothing, tattoos, hand signs, and even hairstyles tied to gang membership, they will alert authorities who will try to solve gang problems earlier.
The message isn’t always welcome.
“A lot of people are surprised. Some people even get offended,” said Lealaitafea, who said parents have balked at the notion their children could be gang participants or that Park City has a gang issue. “I go over the gangs we have and some of the crimes that have been committed by members of these gangs. Then, there really is no way for the community to dispute it.”
About half of Summit County’s documented gang members live in the county, while the other 50 percent live in Salt Lake County, Burton said. He travels between the two jurisdictions when investigating the county’s gang cases. Of the county’s 20 gangs, 75 percent are from predominately Latino gangs, he said.
Efforts to stop gang activity in Summit County will need to progress with plans to combat the state’s larger gang issue, Burton said.
The Salt Lake County Area Gang Project estimates this year there are 5,000 documented gang members representing 338 gangs in the Salt Lake Valley.
Burton notes it’s roughly the same distance to drive to Park City from 2100 South and State Street in Salt Lake City as it is to drive from there to Draper. Gang overflow can easily move up Parleys Canyon, he said.
“Gang members can be up here quick,” said Burton. “We’ve had some serious crime. We haven’t had a lot, but we’ve had some. The sooner we can intervene, the sooner we can reduce the problem.”
Gangs in Summit County
The Summit County Sheriff’s Office has implemented a gang enforcement project that aims to quell gang activity and gather intelligence on the county’s growing gang population. Examples of gang crime reported in the county in recent years:
In June, Park City police arrested five men on suspicion of sexual assault after two women reported being raped at the Stein Eriksen Lodge. The women, who met the men at a bar and initially went to the hotel with them willingly, told police the men later wouldn’t let them leave and held them against their will. Investigators later determined the men had gang ties.
A Cold Stone Creamery in the Redstone development near Park City was robbed at gunpoint by gang members a year and a half ago.
In October 2003, gang member Kautoke Tangitau was shot to death at the Kimball Junction nightclub Suede. Police said he was attacked by members of the Salt Lake City gang “Baby Regulators.”
Source: Summit County Sheriff’s Office, Park City Police Department Gangs in Utah
The Salt Lake County Area Gang Project estimates this year there are 5,000 documented gang members representing 338 gangs in the Salt Lake Valley.
The Summit County Sheriff’s Office has documented 120 gang members representing 20 gangs who are active in Park City and western areas of the county.
Source: Salt Lake Area Gang Project and Summit County Sheriff’s Office