By By Ellen Thompson
July 19th 2007

Operation Peacekeeper to be re-instated - with more outreach workers

STOCKTON - A year since a report on Stockton crime found a staggering 29 percent of all homicides were gang-related, the city implemented an outreach effort to loosen the grip of gangs.

Stockton police look to have as many gang outreach workers as gang detectives - an intervention strategy authors of a study released Wednesday say is more effective than arrests in cutting gang violence.

"The outreach workers really give us a foot in the door," Stockton Police Chief Wayne Hose said. "They can provide services to someone who wants to get out of a gang or needs help. They can also gather information about what's going on in the street."

The newly released study supporting intervention was authored by the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank that opposes a reliance on incarceration alone. It panned law enforcement efforts that rely too heavily on arrests. Hose wasn't immediately familiar with the Justice Policy Institute's study, but he said the Police Department is willing to look anywhere for suggestions on how to curb gang violence.

Since last year, police have been relying on a report specific to Stockton. In 2005, the Stockton City Council responded to news that Stockton had the highest violent crime rate in the state by commissioning Harvard lecturer Anthony Braga to analyze the city's crime.

He pointed to a need for more gang intervention and recommended the Police Department revitalize a decade-old program called Operation Peacekeeper. It puts outreach workers, former gang members themselves, onto the street to support people who want to leave gangs. It also includes monthly forums at which known gang members are offered information about available programs as well as a warning that they are being watched.

That program was credited with a drop in gang-related homicides, but support for the program waned over time. In recent months, Hose has brought the program back and praised outreach workers for being able to form bonds with youths that uniformed officers may not be able to. By the end of the year, Hose said, the city expects to hire two more outreach workers for a total of six. But while Stockton officials support intervention, they laud efforts that catch and punish criminals. Hose pointed to two major gang operations last month.

The police chief expects 36 arrests of the local Asian gang Loc Town Crips to lead to a drop in street violence but does not expect a similar change after an FBI operation last month that took down four Nuestra Familia members in Stockton and a score elsewhere. Nuestra Familia members are the leaders behind the Norteņo prison gang.

"It's hard to scare them, they are so indoctrinated," Hose said. "But we can't not do anything. We have to target them. There have to be consequences." The study also showed that once arrested, people sent to prison often emerge with stronger ties to gangs.

Cheryl Campoy, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman, said recent funding for rehabilitation programs like mental health and education services are meant to help, but that it's difficult for prisons to end the gang cycle.

"When the offender is received into our custody, those (gang) ties are already established," she said, commenting on the Justice Policy Institute's report. "We're challenged with giving the offenders the tools, often in a short amount of time, to turn their life around."

Studies and reports aside, Hose said the whole community needs to be involved in curbing gang violence because law enforcement can't do it alone. "It's so much bigger than that," he said. "It's family issues, it's poverty issues, it's the influence gangs have. We can't be everywhere."

Contact reporter Ellen Thompson at (209) 546-8279 or ethompson@recordnet.com.