NCJ Number
141466
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 60 Issue: 2 Dated: (February 1993) Pages: 25-27
Date Published
1993
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article describes a mid-sized city's (Oxnard, Calif.) police program for addressing the juvenile gang problem, with attention to program design and implementation.
Abstract
The program, called Gang Offender Comprehensive Action Program (GO-CAP), is a component of the Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program (SHOCAP). SHOCAP is aimed at juveniles who pose a chronic, serious threat to the safety of the community. Based on active participation of uniformed patrol, GO-CAP uses case management activity to pursue vigorous prosecution of all gang offenders through the Street Terrorism Act. Because of diligent case management and interagency cooperation, this approach enables the probation department to place strict, nonassociation conditions on gang members, thus further breaking the bonds between gang members. Uniformed patrol officers, who are kept apprised of probation conditions, assist in enforcement. Last year, during the first phase of the program, the steering committee established the criteria for classifying gang members and gang-related incidents. Once committee members had determined the needs of patrol officers, they created a comprehensive data base to aid in the investigation of gang-related crimes and provide guidance for selective enforcement activities. The committee chose a hardware and software system to store intelligence information on gangs and created a system for disseminating the information to all officers in a usable form.