MASSIVE GANG SWEEP HAD LASTING IMPACT ON SANTA ANA STREET

Crime: Neighborhood residents say life is better, but some complain of
continued police scrutiny since '94 raid.

SANTA ANA--More than five years after police swept through one of
Santa Ana's toughest neighborhoods in a massive raid, crime has
plummeted, a gang once considered the most violent in Orange County is
crippled and residents say they feel liberated to once again stroll
along the streets.

Officials said the sweep of the 3rd Street area offers hope--and
lessons--to residents across town in west Santa Ana, where an army of
law enforcement agents moved in last week in a sweep inspired by what
was called Operation Roundup.

That sweep--at the time the biggest such operation in county
history--was aimed at breaking the grip of local gangs and resulted in
the arrests of more than 100 people.

The transformation, experts said, demonstrates the effect such tactics
can have on gang-filled neighborhoods. It also highlights the
trade-off residents in those neighborhoods face: accepting greater
police scrutiny in exchange for safer streets.

"The idea is to replicate our earlier success," said Police Sgt. Raul
Luna. "We wouldn't have been able to put this second raid together if
we couldn't show that this type of operation can make a difference.
With 3rd Street, we can make that case."

Police statistics show a major turnaround along 3rd Street:

* Serious crimes dropped by more than 70% in the first year after the
raid, according to police. By contrast, those crimes dropped by about
12% countywide and 15% in Santa Ana.

* In the 10 months before the sweep, police received 500 calls for
service. During the same period in 1999, officers received 46.
Moreover, most of the complaints now are for loud music, officials
said.

* The crackdown, authorities said, played a major role in the city's
plummeting gang murder rate, which has dropped from 46 in 1995 to
seven in 1999. The 3rd Street area, which saw five homicides in the
three years before the raid, has experienced only one in the four
years since.

"It's completely different than before. Back then you couldn't be
outside, even in broad daylight. Everyone was scared," said
20-year-old George Gonzalez, who grew up in the area of modest homes
and apartment complexes a few blocks from police headquarters.

"Now the park is clean. Kids can play around and have fun. The
neighborhood got together."

Some experts, including gang specialists, have warned that such
intense suppression tactics can have fleeting success.

Well-established gangs have shown enormous resiliency in some areas,
as leaders move in and out of prison systems.

For example, an FBI-LAPD task force that targeted a violent,
drug-dealing cell of the notorious 18th Street gang in the early 1990s
proclaimed that the Southwest Los Angeles area had been cleaned up. A
few years later, however, city officials argued in court that the area
was again out of control and won an injunction restricting the
activities of alleged gang members.

Shortly thereafter, an LAPD officer involved in enforcing the
injunction was fatally ambushed in the same area, allegedly by an 18th
Street gang member.

In Santa Ana, police said that the 6th Street gang, which for years
terrorized Gonzalez's neighborhood, was devastated by the September
1994 raid, which sent dozens of its members to state prison, primarily
on drug and weapons charges.

Members began returning to 3rd Street over the last year as their
prison sentences ended, but authorities said that the array of
community efforts and aggressive enforcement has prevented the gang
from reemerging as a force. It's all a far cry from the early 1990s,
when the area was known as a drug dealing mecca where rock cocaine
addicts blockaded streets and gang members brazenly robbed car passengers.

Families now picnic in a park that was once the site of drive-by
shootings. And people have moved into long-abandoned homes and apartments.

The change began with the 1994 predawn raid that netted 117 drug
dealers, most of them members of the notorious 6th Street gang.

Believing that arrests alone would not change the neighborhood, police
launched their first effort to remake a community, and sought help
from residents and local businesses.

"It's an evolutionary linkage between visible disorder and crime,"
said Santa Ana Police Lt. Bill Tegeler, who supervised the operation.
"If you don't take care of those small things, they will turn into big
things."

The park at the corner of Flower Street, a onetime thug hangout, was
spiffed up after the California Angels and other businesses donated
$120,000 for playground equipment and bathroom improvements. Dozens of
abandoned units at a condominium complex once used as flophouses by
drug addicts were rehabilitated by a nonprofit group provided with $2
million in city funding.

Police and city officials also encouraged owners to take better care
of their properties. As a result, police and residents say, pride of
ownership returned to the area. Abandoned cars were towed away,
garbage was hauled off and graffiti painted over.

"Once you start cleaning up a property the gang people scurry away,"
said Bob Bell, a Newport Beach real estate investor who had to repair
bullet holes in some of the 80 apartment units he bought in the area
before the sweep. "The minute things are cleaned up and there's pride
of ownership, the gang members realize that the activity they want to
do is not welcome anymore."

But among some people who saw family members arrested during Operation
Roundup, feelings about the cleanup are more mixed. Although many
admit that crime is down and the street feels safer, some complain
that they get too much scrutiny from officers.

'We've been thinking of moving to Tustin because the police harass us
so much," said Anna Lopez, whose brother and sister were arrested in
the 1994 raid. "They shine the spotlights on the house in the middle
of the night. They come inside whenever they want. It's tiring. I wish
they would leave us alone."

Tegeler said he was not aware of complaints, and most 3rd Street
residents interviewed over the last few months express strong support
for the police action and hope it continues.

"We feel we can do just about anything now," said Virginia Avila, who
has lived in the area for 50 years. "We can go on the bus. We can go
to the store. Or go visit someone on 4th Street. There's no crime
really happening right now. We are very grateful for the police."

Experts say the mixed reactions are typical of residents in areas
targeted for intense police involvement. Complaints of police excesses
are inevitable, and residents must weigh whether the benefits outweigh
the potential pitfalls.

"The idea is that just busting the criminal is not enough," said James
Meeker, a UC Irvine professor of criminology, law and society. "You
need to do more. You also have to do community development. It takes a
lot more effort, but the rewards are there, and it's well worth the
money."

Meeker, an expert on Orange County gang trends, said Operation Roundup
and last week's raid have a better chance of success than most sweeps
because police built individual cases against each of the more than
100 suspects who were arrested.

"When they just go in and do a sweep for jaywalking and spitting, that
doesn't have an effect," he said. "If this is subject to solid
indictments and coupled with community programs, that sounds like a
program that should work."