Gang Database Raises Civil Rights Concerns
Law enforcement: More than 90% of those on countywide listing are
minorities. Critics question limited access, lack of evidencenearly half
were
never arrested. Officials defend file's accuracy, cite usefulness.
By LORENZA MUNOZ, Times Staff Writer

SANTA ANAAs state officials plan to expand a database
with the names and photographs of reputed gang members,
an arm of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the American
Civil Liberties Union are questioning whether minorities in Orange
County are unfairly targeted by local law enforcement.
Minorities make up less than 50% of Orange County's
population, yet Latinos, Asians and African Americans make up
more than 90% of the 20,221 Orange County men and women
being tracked by law enforcement as suspected gang membersa
seeming disparity that has alarmed the California Advisory
Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and others.
"I have serious questions about whether this is constitutionally all
right," said Phil Montez, regional director of the advisory panel,
which launched a probe into the socalled gang list after a recent
hearing into allegations of widespread civil rights violations in
Orange County.
While officials plan to make the database accessible to law
enforcement statewide, the Gang Reporting Evaluation and
Tracking (GREAT) system is at the center of a debate pitting
individual rights against efforts to aggressively combat gang crime.
ACLU representatives have asked the Orange County district
attorney's office to establish a civilian oversight board to scrutinize
what it sees as critical problems with the gang list, including:
* The secrecy surrounding it. Only police and prosecutors have
access to it and are not required to notify people who are placed on
it.
* Vague criteria for determining who is a gang member.
Loosefitting clothing or hanging out in certain neighborhoods are
factors used to label suspected gang members.
* Lack of evidence. Nearly half of the men and women on
Orange County's list of suspected gang members have never been
arrested.
John Crew, director of the ACLU's Police Practices Project,
sent a letter to the advisory committee on July 3, urging that Orange
County law enforcement officials tighten their criteriaand at the
very least inform individuals when they are entered into the system.
"Orange County law enforcement is bucking a nationwide trend
toward the creation of more and stronger systems of independent
oversight," Crew wrote.
Law enforcement officials across Orange County object to the
criticism.
* * *
While stereotypical gang clothing and tattoos are sometimes
taken into consideration, more than 80% of the people in the
Orange County system are admitted gang members, said Loren
Duchesne, head of the Orange County district attorney's bureau of
investigation and the coordinator of the Orange County database
system.
"Our objective is not to put anyone in the system who is not a
gang member," Duchesne said.
There are also safeguards, Duchesne said. Officers must justify
each entry into the database system. And every five years, the list is
purged of people who have not come into contact with police.
"I personally do not know of anybody who is put into the gang
system that does not deserve to be there," Duchesne said. "I think
we do a very good job of being careful."
Orange County law enforcement officials say the system has
helped beleaguered law enforcement officials combat Southern
California's gang problem. The list is used to keep track of
everchanging gang membership, crime patterns and brushes with
the law.
Gangrelated homicides in Orange County have dropped from
70 in 1995 to 42 in 1996, a reduction that Duchesne and others
believe is due in part to the gang list.
Westminster Police Chief James Cook is one of the system's
biggest boosters.
"We reach the truth much quicker" when it comes to gang
crimes, he said. "It has made us more efficient, has increased
community safety and saved taxpayer money."
In March, Gov. Pete Wilson echoed law enforcement's support
for the database, announcing the formation of a statewide computer
system called CAL/GANG. Operated by the state Department of
Justice, it will include information on reputed gang members
statewide.
The program will be run by an Irvinebased data software
company that provided intelligence information to the CIA during
the Cold War. It is expected to be available statewide in less than
one year, Duchesne said.
It's the lack of police oversight that is a concern to many.
* * *
Law enforcement officials decide who is placed on the list and
are not required to share that information with anyone, even
individuals on the list. Authorities insist this is done to safeguard
individual rights.
The list is not meant to be a criminal rap sheet; rather, it is an
informational tool for authorities to use when tracking down
suspected gang members involved in serious crimes, they said.
"That person is not being labeled, he is being used as a potential
lead for law enforcement," said Don Mace, the CAL/GANG
project administrator at the Department of Justice.
Individuals who are stopped by police, photographed and asked
to provide personal information can assume they are on the list,
Cook said.
Of the 20,221 people on Orange County's list, 14,732 are
Latino, 2,586 are Asian, 1,521 are white and 898 are black,
Duchesne said.
Those numbers reflect a sad reality of gang violence in Orange
County, not police targeting minorities, authorities said.
"Gangs tend to develop among new immigrant groups and in
socioeconomic areas where they have been denied opportunities,"
Cook said. "It is a tragic fact. However, we simply accept crime as
crime when it comes in."
But critics say they still have troubling questions about why so
many minorities make the list and concerns that many being listed
cannot defend themselves.
"We have masses of people being labeled without recourse,"
said Yvette Verastegui, an Orange County public defender. "I'm not
saying there isn't a gang problem, but I also believe that there are
certain rights we need to protect."
* * *
At a minimum, authorities should implement the standards
Garden Grove police agreed to when they settled a 1994 civil rights
lawsuit with the ACLU over photographing Asian youths for their
"gang book," Crew said.
Those standards include barring police from photographing
individuals without evidence of a crime being committed and
allowing detainees to refuse to have their pictures be taken,
according to the civil rights agency.
The GREAT list has soured relations with police in Anaheim,
Santa Ana and other areas heavily populated by minorities,
residents said.
Jessica Castro, chairwoman of United Neighborhoods, said
Latino youths are questioned and photographed by police despite
there being no evidence of a crime or gang membership. She also
questioned the list's value.
"This is not doing anything about our gang problem. This is not
resolving the issue," Castro said.
Claudio Ceja, 15, of Anaheim said he believes he is wrongly on
Orange County's gang list.
He insists he is not a gang member but said he has been stopped
repeatedly by local law enforcement officials and had his picture
taken.
"I don't like them stopping me too often, but I've gotten used to
it already" Ceja said. "I tell them, 'I'm not in a gang. I've never been
arrested.' It's wrong. They can't judge you by the way you dress or
who you hang out with. They should judge you by the way you are
when they get to know you."

Keeping Track
Orange County law enforcement officials keep track of
suspected gang members by compiling names, photos, and
suspected activities in a massive database. Supporters say the list
has helped beleaguered law enforcement officials combat a growing
gang problem.
* Critics say: Database is discriminatory, in part because Asians,
Latinos and African Americans compose most of the listbut are
still the minority in Orange County.
* Police/prosecutors reply: Ethnicity is irrelevant; only
suspicious/illegal activity lands someone on the list.
Here's how the ethnic breakdown from the list of more than
20,000 suspected gang members/associates compares to ethnic
composition of the county's 2.6 million people (1995, most recent
available):
Total population
White 59%
Latino 27
Asian* 11
Black 2
Other 1
Gang members/ associates
Latino 73%
Asian* 15
White 7
Black 4
Unknown 1
* Includes Pacific Islanders
Sources: Orange County district attorney's office, Center for
Demographic Research (Cal State Fullerton); Researched by
LORENZA MUNOZ/Los Angeles Times

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