KINGS COUNTY ADS TEACH PUBLIC ABOUT TASK FORCES

Family Support, Gang Groups Among Those In Cable TV Commercials.

HANFORD -- A carousel sits quiet in the fog, devoid of children and their
laughter.

The image -- symbolic of children who don't get enough support from their
families -- begins a 30-second commercial airing on cable-television
stations in Kings County.

It's one of many commercials devised by the Kings County District
Attorney's Office, which has launched a public-service campaign to inform
viewers about partnerships between the office, other government services
and law enforcement.

The commercials "let the public know we have a lot of different task-force
partnerships going on in ways people wouldn't guess," said Patrick Hart,
chief deputy district attorney in Kings County. "We're trying to illustrate
that those exist."

The task forces deal with different types of crime, including elder abuse,
rural crime, welfare fraud, insurance fraud, gangs and narcotics.

Some focus on public outreach, such as family support and the
multidisciplinary interview team, which works with children.

Members of the task forces include representatives from the District
Attorney's Office, victim-witness advocates, the county agricultural
commissioner, adult protective services, the California Highway Patrol,
state parole and the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, and members of
police, sheriff's, probation, social-services and health departments.

The groups meet anywhere from once a day to once a month, swapping ideas
and giving each other advice on issues such as search and seizure.

Commercials for family support, gang and narcotics task forces have been
produced and are being aired.

Multidisciplinary interview, welfare and rural crime-team commercials will
be taped soon, Hart said, and should be on the air by early April.

"We're really telling victims or potential victims...that all these
services are out there," Kings County Supervisor Tony Oliveira said.

"If you know these things are happening, you pick up the telephone and tell
us about it."

The commercials air on cable channels such as CNN, TBS, A&E, ESPN, FX and
Lifetime at a rate of about 225 airings per month. Up to 52,000 Kings
County residents who live north of Kettleman City could see the commercials
daily.

"We wanted a very broad spectrum so that we could reach the maximum number
of viewers and not exclude people by ethnicity or by wealth," Hart said.

It costs about $1,300 each month to run the commercials. They are paid for
with asset-forfeiture money seized during drug raids and with
family-support outreach money, Hart said.

"If it's very effective, it's dirt cheap," Hart said. "If it's not, it's
very expensive."

Hart said he thought of creating the commercials last fall after receiving
calls from citizens who didn't know about the task forces.

"They would call and say, for example, that the lady who lives across the
street -- I haven't seen her for four days," Hart said. "We would want that
information, but this caller does not know we have an entire task force set
up" for elder abuse.

So Hart tried to find a way to get the message to large groups of people.

"TV came to mind because everyone seems to have it," Hart said.

Oliveira said the commercials send a simple message: "If you're a bad guy,
this isn't a very good place to come to."