US CA: THE STATUS OF CRIME IN LAKE COUNTY

LAKEPORT -- Elucidating on the status of crime in the county,
District Attorney Gary Luck covered areas that have improved and
those that remain as follows:

Gangs

"We (Lake County law enforcement in total) identified gang activity
and broke it up two or three years ago. We shut it down in the
Lakeport and Kelseyville areas where there was a group of gang
leaders trying to establish toeholds and recruit from our schools.
Those leaders we were able to send off to prison with tough
prosecution. They are coming out of prison now, but we have an eye
out for their reappearing. We are ever vigilant in that area. We have
some young individuals out there who are wannabes,' but we do not
have organized gang activity and I don't see it taking hold."

Methamphetamine And Drugs

"We're not alone. This is a huge nationwide problem. It's unfortunate
that it's reached epidemic proportions in this country. Meth and
alcohol are involved in probably 90 percent of our cases. In
prosecuting juveniles, we have learned that it starts out with their
using marijuana, which is even used in elementary schools. They
graduate from 11 or 12 and by age 14 are addicted. Probably 80
percent (of juvenile offenders) have a chronic meth problem that we
have to try to clean up. But the gateway drug' has been marijuana."

Drunk Drivers

"Unfortunately, we have a disproportionate percentage of our
population that's into antisocial behavior. It's been that way for a
long time. It's improving, but we still have a long way to go. The
reason for the problem is that housing here is cheap. People on
welfare programs and those who don't want to work came up here and
rented small houses for $150 to $200 a month. These people network
and the next thing you know we have an entire community that's into
that. But the scenario is changing; these people can't afford to come
here anymore. They have to look to other rural communities."

Crime Movement In County

"Any time you have a rural county you are going to have people who
don't want to be under a microscope and they're going to try to
locate themselves where they know law enforcement is spread thin. The
City of Clearlake had a special problem a few years ago when the
California Highway Patrol went in to assist. Crime dropped
tremendously, because you couldn't walk down the street in Clearlake
without seeing a police car every 10 minutes. Then the crime problem
moved to Clearlake Oaks, Lucerne and Upper Lake, because the sheriff
didn't have enough resources for that large an area. But we're
working with Clearlake Oaks to clean it up.

"We have supported the program in the north shore by prosecuting even
the lowest type of crime, which in this particular case is public
drunkenness (rather than letting drunks sleep it off' in jail). Since
we started that program we haven't had one pedestrian fatality along
the Highway 20 corridor."