Editorial: Policing of gang activity not effective

Sting and run: that’s Fresno’s police strategy to rid the city of gang activity.
The Fresno police department has dropped the ball when it comes to regulating gangs around the city of Fresno.

Two factors that contribute to the increase of gang activity in Fresno are poverty and the lack of a permanent police presence.

It is not unrealistic to see a connection between the recent gang violence in Fresno and the city’s ranking as having the highest poverty concentration in the nation.

According to the 2000 census, 60,000 of nearly 800,000 Fresnans lived in high poverty neighborhoods between 1990 and 2000.

A report from the Brookings Research Institution shows Fresno with a concentrated poverty rate of 43.5 percent.

The report indicates that a concentrated poverty rate reflected the proportion of poor people citywide who live in extreme poverty neighborhoods.

Poverty in certain areas of the city serves as a great source for gang members to recruit young people.

Although Fresno police frequent these areas they are not a permanent presence. This has resulted in the escalation of violence over the past few years and shows the methods used to control gangs are no longer effective.

Meshing police into the neighborhood landscape is a surefire way to keep gang activity down.

A perfect example is the police substation located in El Dorado Park, near Bulldog Stadium. For more than three years the police have served this area and have seen a significant decrease in gang violence and crime.

Yes, crime still exists. A consistent police presence serves as a reminder to would-be criminals and serves as a comfort to residents.

Fresno Police should follow the same pattern for the rest of the city. In areas such as West Fresno, which has the most concentrated areas of gang violence, police need to reestablish their presence. This ensures criminal activities don’t take root and allows the police to regulate the current activity with a hands-on approach, not third person through 911 call centers.

Police need to build a substation within one of these neighborhoods. Although the occasional stings result in high numbers in arrests, firearms and narcotics recovered, think of the returns if the department was a part of the permanent landscape.

Police should not be waiting until people die before they put together an operation to quell the violence.

The city should also get involved in improving rundown neighborhoods. Most of the gang-infested areas are the ones neglected by the city. The houses are rundown with little access to amenities such as parks, health centers and schools.

Five gang-related deaths have occurred in the past month and this should be enough to show city officials this is a serious problem in need of much more than just temporary supervision.

Of course, city leaders are taking notice, according to an article on the ABC30 Web site, “their overall plan to combat gang violence is having a no tolerance policy and to reach out to at-risk youth.”

Although the plan sounds encouraging, such things cannot happen if the problem is not addressed at the root, further highlighting the unnecessary act of implementing police presence in short spurts.

What is really needed is a more constant sense of security for civilians. A constant police presence would also create a sense of authority that might deter gang members from committing petty crime. More surveillance could prevent petty crimes from escalating into bigger, uncontrollable acts.

It seems like the city is choosing to ignore neglected neighborhoods when they should be encouraging programs to revitalize the community such as Big Brothers, Big Sister and other mentoring programs.

The problem is ongoing so the solution should be as well. The problem will never be fixed but small steps toward emphasizing the concept of “community” instead of “gangs” will give young people a sense of involvement that is positive to themselves and the people around them.

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