Escalating crime?
Police concede illegal syndicates pose a real and present problem for area

A deadly gang-related shooting took place at a residence at Fair View Apartments, 555 N.W. Ninth St., Ontario, Saturday, leaving a local man dead. Gang violence such as this, however, is not going to stop as local gang members retaliate for previous incidents, Ontario Police Department officials say. They are again renewing their efforts to obtain funding to fill a gang officer position, allowing OPD to address Ontario’s gang problem regularly.

ADVERTISEMENT

The key to gathering that kind of intelligence, he said, is focusing the attention of an officer strictly to the gang community and gang activity — an officer who can get out in Ontario daily and talk to people and develop a presence.

For the OPD, addressing gang activity and performing day-to-day duties has become a balancing act of priorities.

Alexander said OPD officers can’t neglect their day-to-day responsibilities and duties, and because of limited officer resources, dedicating the attention needed to gangs would mean taking an officer away from his/her regular job.

As a result, he said, much of the information OPD has on the local gang activity is three years old — the last time Ontario had a gang officer.

Alexander said, while some of that information has been useful, it is not as effective as having a gang officer on the job gathering new information every day.

Not having a full-time officer dedicated to gang interdiction makes it hard for OPD to be proactive toward the local gang problems, Ontario Police Chief Mike Kee said. He also said the lack of a full-time gang officer makes preparing for future gang-related public safety events very difficult.

Three years ago, Kee said, OPD was better prepared, but at the moment, the department can’t spare any of its officers to fill that position again because they are needed elsewhere. 

And Kee said he also has no doubt more violence — stemming from this latest incident — will follow.

“Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next month, but eventually something will happen as a result of this,” he said.

He also said OPD is looking into the possibility Saturday’s shooting incident was related to the Payette County trial and conviction of Hector Brito Almaraz who was found guilty of murder for the shooting death of a local man at a Fruitland bar in 2006.

Kee said, when OPD had enough staff on hand to transfer one officer to the gang slot three years ago, the department and officer made real progress against the illegal syndicates.

During the six or seven months OPD was able to keep the officer in the gang interdiction slot, the policeman made an impact, Kee said.

 The officer, Kee said, conducted three residential search warrants, seized seven guns — three of which were stolen and one used in a drive-by shooting — and identified 11 gang members. The officer also completed two drug cases that resulted in convictions, helped with some other convictions, gained intelligence by listening into jail phone calls and using the Internet and helped form the Tri-County Gang Task Force. The officer also conducted two gang education classes and was able to clear about 90 percent of the graffiti cases at the time, among other things.

The policeman dedicated to gangs was moved off that beat and put back on patrol, Kee said, after another officer was injured. Since then, Kee said, the department has never secured another opportunity to move an officer back into the gang slot.

Since then, the proposal to fund the gang slot has come before the City Council twice in the last three years, as recently as February when Alexander presented the idea to impose a fee or go out for a bond to hire three additional officers, one of whom would be dedicated to gangs.

Kee said he also posed the idea of a gang enforcement squad back in 2006 along with a similar funding measure idea.

It appears the latest shooting has also spurred the idea again. The concept of a gang officer for the city will be reopened for conversation at today’s City Council workshop, and Kee hopes some resolution will be worked out by Tuesday’s meeting.

He said, because the gang violence will only escalate in the future, more and more people not directly involved in gangs will become victims in the incidents.

That has happened already when innocent people have been hit by stray bullets in a drive-by shooting, as well as property being damaged from bullets. It is also a matter of time until an innocent person gets killed.

“Oh yeah, it’s going to happen,” he said, adding the firearms gang members are using, in some cases, are state-of-the-art.

In the Saturday shooting at the apartment complex, he said, one of the weapons used was actually a .223 high-powered rifle, which has the ability to shoot bullets through walls.

“It’s just by the grace of God nobody else was hit,” he said.

Ontario City Councilman Dan Cummings said the latest incident indicates something needs to be done soon, and the idea of a gang officer has been put on the back burner for too long by the Council.

“Well, it was discussed, and it was put on the back burner because of the funding,” he said. “There’s several things that have been put on the back burner. The biggest problem we have is funding. But, like I say, we have to find a solution to it one way or the other.”

Searching for more local news? Go to www.argusobserver.com