Salinas losing six of its elite anti-gang officers

Salinas Californian

June 26, 2010

By Sunita Vijayan

Plenty of what the Salinas Police Department's Violence Suppression Unit does goes unnoticed by law-abiding residents — and that's the way the city's gang task force prefers it.

But this summer, those residents may notice something unwanted: a rise in the kinds of crimes the unit fights against.

On June 15, police Chief Louis Fetherolf announced that the unit will lose six of its 16 officers to help the city stave off a $12.4 million deficit for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Effective July 1, Fetherolf said, his department will be authorized to have 158 sworn officers — down 19 from about a year ago and back to staffing levels from 1999. Those cut from the VSU will be transferred to other units within the department, Fetherolf said.

The police chief said the team will have one supervising sergeant instead of two, and nine officers. He said he has not yet determined who will stay on.

"It's a methodical process," Fetherolf said. "[It will be] those who are doing the best and those who are best-suited."

He said the changes to the unit will not impact the VSU's duties with the city's Ceasefire anti-gang program or efforts such as Operation Knockout.

For eight months, the VSU officers headed a large-scale effort called Operation Knockout, which culminated in April with the arrests of dozens of gang members from Salinas to San Jose. On the day of the raids, California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced the formation of the Monterey County Narcotics and Violence Task Force.

Fetherolf said interviews are being conducted for a supervisor and four officers to work under the state Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement task force.

Even with the scaled-back VSU, he said, the Police Department will stay aggressive in its war on gangs and continue participating in operations such as Knockout.

"The state and feds have committed to ... help us in the long-term," he said. "We can't let [the momentum we built] falter. Even with reduced staff, we're going to do what we have to do."

Still, Fetherolf conceded that the cuts will impact the unit's daily operations, since it will be about two-thirds of its initial size.

Salinas police Officer Lalo Villegas, the department's spokesman, said Monday that the unit may get help from the Monterey County Joint Gang Task Force, which might work days not covered by the VSU.

Salinas unit

Sixteen officers, two teams, one city, 3,500 gang members.

Since its creation 15 years ago, the purpose of the Violence Suppression Unit has remained unchanged — battling with Norteño and Sureño gangs, the two primary criminal groups in Salinas.

"We're very similar to what the [Monterey County Joint] Gang Task Force does countywide, but we focus on city limits, and we've been doing it a lot longer," said deputy Chief Manny Perrien, who heads the department's investigations division.

Perrien said the VSU has been a staple of the department since before the 1990s.

Previously called the "gang task force" and "special enforcement team," the unit received its current name in 1995, following a one-time grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Police Services, or COPS. The Salinas Youth Firearms Violence Initiative provided funding for more than a dozen of sworn officers divided into two teams for seven-days-a-week coverage.

The duties of the VSU include surveillance, conducting probation and parole searches, traffic stops, recovering firearms illegally obtained or used in crimes, and working with informants.

The initiative stemmed from an increase in gangs and gang-related violence in Salinas from 1984 through 1994. Salinas city officials have said that the gang violence in Salinas has been cyclical over the past 50 years.

According to a publication by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the formation of the VSU showed promising results. During its first two years, gun-related crimes and violent offenses in Salinas by those younger than 25 dipped 34 percent in the first year and 21 percent in the next year.

In 2009, the city saw a record 29 homicides — all gang-related. In 2008, gangs were blamed for all but two of the 25 homicides.

Perrien said the VSU became a blended team, with half of its officers belonging to SWAT, about four to five years ago, when he took charge of the unit.

So far in 2010, the city has seen three homicides, all gang-related. By this time last year, Salinas had reached 14 homicides because of gang violence. Perrien said in January that the work of VSU officers doesn't stop just because the number of homicides drops.

"There's [still other] gang crime in this town every single day," Perrien said. "There's enough to go around."

Undercover operations

The unit has played a role in a number of large-scale, multi-agency efforts to stifle gangs, including Operation Valley Star in 2007, which saw the capture of 22 suspected gang members along the Pacific coast from the San Francisco Bay Area through Monterey County. Perrien said an officer was also assigned full-time to "Operation Money Train," a multi-agency effort cracking down on gang-related auto theft from June 2008 to May 2009. Additionally, VSU played a part in the seven-year FBI investigation "Operation Black Widow." In September 2004, eight members of the Nuestra Familia prison gang pleaded guilty to federal racketeering conspiracy charges as a result of that operation.

Local gang experts say the shootings on the streets of Salinas decreased as a result.

In Operation Knockout, Investigations Cmdr. Dan Perez said, the VSU gathered and researched information on targets.

When the operation culminated in April, Perez said, the unit focused on enforcement.

"Whenever something comes into Salinas that is gang-related, we're usually involved," he said. "Those operations are a part of the VSU's mission."

Ceasefire role

These days, the city's gang busters have another mission to pursue — Ceasefire. The project includes holding regular call-in sessions to get violent gang members to put down their weapons. So far, the city has held six sessions for more than 70 gang members. The plan is to offer gang members alternatives such as job training and programs so that the violence stops.

Ceasefire, based on a program created in Boston in the mid-1990s, is partially paid for by a $357,021 matching grant from the state.

Perrien said the VSU is integral to Ceasefire's potential success. It plays a two-part role — gathering the names of gang members for Ceasefire coordinators to contact and laying down the law should they fail to heed the directive to stop the violence.

This year, following two separate fatal shootings, the VSU shifted into the latter role.

In March, 6-year-old Azahel Cruz was shot dead in his home when rival gangs exchanged gunfire. Days later, the VSU struck back — arresting members of the gangs involved in the shooting. VSU officers continued enforcement efforts, particularly targeting the gangs police say were responsible for the killing. No arrests have been made.

"We do everything in our power to make sure these people know they're being watched," Perrien said. "But our part in Ceasefire doesn't really change what we do every day."
Additional Facts
by the numbers

The following are 2009 statistics from the Salinas Police Department's Violence Suppression Unit:
# 1,837: Traffic stops conducted
# 1,009: Patrol or outside agency assists
# 623: Probation and parole searches
# 380: Adult felony and misdemeanor arrests
# 94: Juvenile felony and misdemeanor arrests
# 61: Gang prosecution cases
# 52: Firearms recovered