ANTI-GANG UNIT RECEIVES ADDITIONAL YEAR'S FUNDING.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Lancaster sheriff's officials have received a $500,000 state grant to continue for another year an anti-gang program that brings together sheriff's detectives, a county probation officer and a prosecutor.

Gang Violence Suppression team leaders had been waiting for months to learn whether the state would renew the grant program that had funded the team for its first three years.

``We're excited it's been renewed so we can keep doing what we've been doing for three years,'' said Los Angeles County Probation Officer Janice Jones, who works out of the Lancaster sheriff's station with the team. ``We all like what we're doing and we believe in what we're doing.''

Focused on curbing violent street crime, the grant pays for a full-time prosecutor to concentrate on serious gang crime in Lancaster and for a county probation officer specializing in gang members to work with sheriff's deputies.

The grant also funds anti-gang programs offered by the United Community Action Network, schools and the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale.

Those programs provide education and counseling to help identify gang members or potential gang members and encourage them to change their direction.

If the grant had not been approved, the team would have been broken up and sent to other assignments.

The team was established in 1998 by a grant from the California Governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning.

It consists of four county Sheriff's Department investigators, two nighttime investigators, a deputy probation officer, a sergeant and a deputy district attorney.

More than 90 percent of the 1,000 people arrested in the first two years of the team's operation were convicted, officials said.

By the middle of 2000, the team had handled more than 700 cases, served more than 40 search warrants, conducted 80 probation and parole sweeps, and conducted nearly 700 probation and parole searches. The team's funding expired June 30.

The city of Lancaster offered $50,000, or 10 percent of the grant, in hopes of swaying state officials' decision through a show of support.

``The city of Lancaster has been very supportive of our efforts,'' Jones said. ``And our results have shown that the program is a success.''