Community tackles gangs

The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office hosted a meeting in the heart of Redwood City gang territory last night at the Redwood Baptist Church on Fifth Avenue. Today, Redwood City will hold the fourth meeting in a series about gang problems. The goal of every meeting is to make residents aware of the problem and brainstorm ways they can help prevent it.

Preventing kids from joining a gang can be as simple as taking children on trips to the store or making sure they attend church with the family. It’s about spending time with children, said Sgt. Tom Gallagher of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.

"The parents must be involved, they must set up a family support system,” Gallagher told the 50 people who gathered last night in Redwood City. "When I started with the task force one woman said she didn’t even know her son was in a gang until he was called to court.”

Gallagher helps head up the gang task force. Officers from the every agency in San Mateo County and the Department of Justice partake in the seven-night a week task force.

The San Mateo County Police Chief’s Association agreed to form the task force after a rise in gang violence this year. The gang violence covers the entire county, from East Palo Alto, East Menlo Park and Redwood City to San Mateo, Burlingame and San Bruno. There are at least 14 gangs in North Fair Oaks, the unincorporated area of Redwood City. There are a total of 45 to 50 in the entire county.

The violence is increasing with gang dealing in weapons and drugs — mainly methamphetamine.

As bad as it seems, it’s no worse than other areas in the state and country, said Sheriff Don Horsley.

Many are subsidiaries of the Norteño and Sureño gangs. There is the LMG, ESM, Rollison Road gangs in Redwood City. In East Palo Alto there’s the Sac Street, Midtown and G-town gangs. San Mateo has the Shoreview crips, Daly City deals with Filipino gangs and the DC Locos. There’s also a Half Moon Bay gang called the Coastside Locos.

Labeling the gangs by their cities can be a big mistake. Many times gang members move from city to city to either start trouble or avoid police — or both. The task force lets officers share information in a real time format.

For example, officers use to drive down the street and notice a person they didn’t recognize. While driving with someone from another city, that officer is more likely to find out that same person is in a gang somewhere else. So instead of waiting for a fight to break out between rival gang members, police can step in before the violence begins, said San Mateo Lt. Wayne Hoss who manages the task force.

In all, the task force has conducted more than 300 searches and made 125 arrests. There are thousands of gang members in San Mateo County and much of the task force’s time in its initial weeks was spent identifying who to go after first.

The task force isn’t going gangbusters all the time. Much of its work requires searching homes of probationers and parolees. One in three searches results in officers learning the person has moved and there’s no way of finding out where he went. Officers try to get information from landlords, but many are reluctant to talk.

It’s a matter of changing their perceptions about police officers on America, Gallagher said.

Officers regularly check in at bars and convenience stores. After they building up trust, store owners are often willing to give valuable information to the officers. On a recent Friday night, Gallagher visited a local bar at around midnight and was approached by a patron with information about gang activity.

Earlier that night, Gallagher — with two other task force members — spent about 20 minutes chatting with members of a San Mateo family that has a checkered criminal history. Making contact with people and building relationships is the first step to gathering the information needed to combat gang violence.

With that in mind, the San Mateo Board of Supervisors approved $1 million this summer to form the Gang Intelligence and Investigation Unit. By forming the unit, the county complies with an earlier grand jury recommendation to form a central clearinghouse for gang information. It will take the information gathered from the task force and use it to compile data for use by all cities.

Meanwhile, police will continue to meet with residents hoping to build relationships that could prevent kids from entering gangs.

The Sheriff’s Office will partake in a Redwood City community meet 6 - 9 p.m. today at the Peninsula Christian Center, 1305 Middlefield Road.

Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.<