Fresno gets aid in battle with gangs

Fresno has been chosen as one of five communities nationwide to receive targeted help in reducing gang crime, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.

The effort will enlist federal crime fighters, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in Washington.

As part of the relatively new Violent Crime Impact Team program, the Justice Department plans to target armed career criminals with a combination of state, federal and local forces.

"The initiative has shown how we can fight crime better, expand freedom, and open new opportunities in communities that had lost all hope," Gonzales said.

Speaking at a meeting of the overseers of California's Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Gonzales identified Fresno as one of five cities that will be targeted with the new task forces. All cities named Monday, which include New Orleans, Hartford, Conn., Houston and Camden, N.J., have been plagued by high levels of gun-associated crime. The program will employ agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; FBI, U.S. Marshals, federal prosecutors and Drug Enforcement Administration to aid Fresno's gang officers, said McGregor Scott, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, which stretches through Central and Northern California from just south of Bakersfield to the Oregon border. Within that region, Fresno is the largest city.

"Working together, they have taken the most violent and the most dangerous offenders off our streets," Gonzales declared.

Federal officers will coordinate with police, sheriff's deputies, probation officers and state prosecutors. The team will be led by a supervisory special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and use intelligence specialists from the agency.

The Justice Department did not detail Monday precisely how long the Fresno effort might last, nor how many additional federal officers might be assigned to the community. Officials also did not indicate how much of the program entails consolidating existing law enforcement resources versus investment in new money and manpower.

"In each of the cities that have been selected, the needs and issues are all different," Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman Tom Hill said. "What we try to do is tailor [the program] to their specific needs."

The program began last year under then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, targeting 15 cities. Officials touted it as a success, crediting the program with more than 1,900 arrests and 1,700 firearms seized.

Fresno will become the second California city involved in the program, joining Los Angeles.

"There is obviously a need and it's not a secret to anybody that Fresno has a significant gang problem," Scott said. "I am just very excited we can bring the resources we have to the good citizens to help them improve the quality of life."

A significant benefit of the program is the ability to prosecute gang members federally. Scott said that will guarantee longer sentences for offenders because federal inmates serve a minimum of 85% of their sentences compared with 50% in state prisons. And the federal prisons are dotted across the country instead of being located in a nearby county.

"When we sentence a gang member to prison they go to Georgia or somewhere else in the country and that can serve to very effectively cut off the ties of the gang," Scott said.

He said the impact will reach beyond Fresno County lines because gang members often go beyond county lines to commit crimes. "The more resources we can concentrate on Fresno, the more we can affect the whole Valley," he said.

In addition to placing federal agents on Fresno's streets, the federal government intends to assist in paying some overtime costs for officers in the Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium, an effort by local law enforcement agencies to team up and combat gang crime.

Scott worked with Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth Egan, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, MAGEC Cmdr. and California Highway Patrol Capt. Matt Bishop and Fresno County Sheriff Richard Pierce in formulating the plan approved for Fresno.

Scott said he expects officers to begin working the Fresno beat in the spring.

Egan said the federal government recognized strides being made in Fresno County to combat gang crime.

No matter that the recognition may be dubious, she said, it will be helpful to law enforcement and law-abiding citizens will benefit.

"What was real important in getting this federal designation was our MAGEC unit because it is so unique; it's a model statewide and so effective that it caught their attention," she said. "We already work in a collaborative effort and our conviction rate is high so they thought this would be a good place to invest their money."

She also credited Scott, a former county district attorney, for his efforts and recognition of financial challenges local governments face in fighting crime.

Egan said the program also will be used as a research tool, assisting officers in understanding in greater detail where gang members and weapons are coming from and where they are going when they leave the community.

"Violent gang members and parolees using guns are clearly the ones we want to focus on," she said.