ANTI-GANG AGENCY BACKED AMID CRISIS.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

To combat street gangs that have taken over many poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles, City Councilman Martin Ludlow proposed on Friday creating a new department with far-reaching powers to oversee programs aimed at keeping young people from joining gangs and helping them get out.

Ludlow said the ``levels of death and mayhem'' caused by gangs shows the city can no longer afford to treat anti-gang programs on an ``ad hoc'' basis.

``This is the first time in the history of the city of Los Angeles where there is a centralized agency plan and the people to deal with this absolute crisis of gangs in Los Angeles. We're the epicenter of the national gang crisis. We need to lead the nation in out-of-the-box thinking.''

His draft plan proposes creating a Department of Urban Affairs that would rely on caseworkers - possibly including existing gang-intervention workers, as well as those trained in new programs - to track and provide a wide array of services for at-risk young people, including training and employment.

Law enforcement leaders generally endorsed the plan, but City Council reaction was mixed with concerns - mainly over funding.

A Daily News special report that ran in September and October found that gang membership has exploded across Southern California since the 1960s in the face of ineffective law enforcement efforts and inadequate prevention and intervention strategies. There now are about 100,000 gangsters in more than 1,300 gangs in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. Gang members have taken the lives of about 3,100 people in Southern California since 1999 - accounting for at least half of all homicides.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton called the new department a ``great idea'' for dealing with the city's ``most significant crime and disorder'' problem.

``This is the third leg ... it supports perfectly additional police,'' as well as more firefighters and paramedics, he said.

If voters approve a citywide sales tax, it would free up about $20 million a year initially for the prevention and intervention efforts without interfering with hiring more cops.

Mayor James Hahn is concerned about expanding the bureaucracy but will evaluate the plan, said his spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman.

Civil-rights attorney Connie Rice said that since Proposition 13, the property tax-reform measure voters passed in 1978, the region has lost billions of dollars in prevention and intervention programs for at-risk young people, leaving an ``incoherent'' system of nonprofits and others with little accountability.

``When they cut all these programs, it was like smashing mercury with a thousand balls going in all these directions,'' Rice said. ``It's not strategic; there's no overall vision or coordination with law enforcement and the schools. It's all scattershot.

``This is a good idea because it's a comprehensive solution. We try to arrest ... our way out of a gang problem, and even the cops will tell you that's brain-dead.''

Funding likely would come from reprogrammed LA Bridges II money, now used for gang-intervention and prevention programs, state Crime Prevention Act funds, and federal grant funding, among other sources.

``You're at a level you can actually leverage the full power of the city of Los Angeles,'' Ludlow said in an interview.

``What we're doing is saying, 'Stop! This child is our child,' and the full power of the second-largest city is America is behind protecting our children. We're going to claim these children. They're ours, not the gangs.''

But West Valley Councilman Dennis Zine, a retired Los Angeles Police Department sergeant, said he wants to first evaluate existing anti-gang programs to determine which ones are successful before debating whether to create another system.

``Where are you going to find the funds? Where are the bodies going to come from when the city already is tight on funds?''

Councilman Ed Reyes said he would ``hate to penalize other departments'' by taking away funds, and that the city should evaluate current programs, possibly through an ad hoc committee. ``That way we'd get it from the people in the trenches, rather than from the top down.''

Councilwoman Jan Perry said a new department potentially could put efforts to get more funding for cops at risk. ``I think that's what this Police Department is supposed to do.''

Valley Councilman Tony Cardenas, who sponsored state juvenile-justice reforms as a state legislator, said a comprehensive solution is badly needed and would be likely to attract state and federal funds.

``There's a symbolic value, but the substance will be far greater.''

Valley Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said whether a new department is created or whether there is a restructuring of the Community Development Department that currently oversees prevention and intervention programs, anti-gang efforts in L.A. must be ``fundamentally re-examined.''

``What we're doing now isn't working.''

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com