Effectiveness of county gang edict hard to measure
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 10:54 AM PST
VALE — A Malheur County gang ordinance similar to Ontario’s is still in the implementation stage although the edict has been on the books since 2007.
In 2007, the Malheur County Court approved an ordinance, mirroring one passed in Ontario the same year, that establishes a way for county law enforcement officials to identify and designate people as gang members.
Malheur County Sheriff Andy Bentz said, however, since enacted, the sheriff’s office has not used the gang ordinance as much as Ontario has, although he expects that to change in the future.
“We’re now just putting in the system internally,” Bentz said.
He said with community corrections, which handles parole and probation, now falling under the umbrella of the sheriff’s office, the county will be more active in employing the gang ordinance through parole and probation and the jail.
Bentz said, there isn’t a lot of contact with gang members on the patrol side of operations, but in the jail there is.
“The sheriff’s office, we have not done any designations because we have been working on the information and investigation sides,” he said, adding, officials are determining how the gang ordinance can be employed through the jail.
“But the parole and probation is pretty straightforward, and we’re starting there,” Bentz said.
Bentz said, in the jail, unless an inmate is openly engaging in gang activity, which is then documented, officials are limited in designating a person a gang member, if they are not already so designated. He also said gathering information on people and sharing that information with various agencies is “also extraordinarily important” in addressing the area’s gang problem.
Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said his office has seen the gang ordinance used more in Ontario because “most of the gang members live within the cities.”
“You’d have to have a situation where a gang member is living in the county,” Norris said of making a designation. “Most of what I’ve got has come to me through the Ontario Police Department.”
Nyssa does not have a gang ordinance, although when the County Court approved the measure in early 2007, Nyssa’s mayor expressed interest in the possibility. Norris also said, if there were gang members in Vale, the sheriff’s office would have the ability to make a designation. As for the gang ordinance’s effectiveness, Norris could not answer.
“That’s a difficult question to answer because I’m not sure where we’d be without it,” he said, adding the ordinance gives parole and probation the ability keep gang members separated. If one of the conditions of a person’s parole or probation, if they are a designated gang member, is they cannot associate with other gang members and they are found to be doing so, they can be arrested for violating their probation or parole.
“So, it gives us a tool to work with,” Norris said. Bentz said, even though the sheriff’s office has not used the gang ordinance much since it was adopted, his department has placed a large focus on gangs in the jail through intelligence work.
“Our role up to this point, and it’s always evolving, but up to this point, we do a tremendous amount of gang work in the jail division,” he said. “We also have been participants in the regional gang task force and information sharing, and also with our participation with the High Desert Task Force. There’s a lot of cross over in the narcotic and stolen property world with the gang world.”
Since taking over community corrections, the sheriff’s office now has room to place a different emphasis on gang activity and gang members that are under supervision that it didn’t have before, Bentz said.
“But the vast majority of that work is going to be with parole and probation and the jail,” Bentz said.
