GANGS DEADLIER THAN TERROR FORUM DEALS WITH 'HOME-GROWN' VIOLENCE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Saying that gang violence has injured more people nationwide than terrorism, police chiefs and FBI agents from across the country converged Sunday on Los Angeles to turn a national spotlight on the ``home-grown'' killer.

During the two-day, closed-door summit that ends today, law enforcement officials hoped to draft a national strategy to take to Washington, D.C., to get more money and resources to fight gang violence - now on the rise in Los Angeles and other cities, despite overall drops in crime, officials said.

``This is what's killing young people here,'' Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said during his opening remarks. ``This is what has the potential to kill many cities.''

Bratton, who referred to gang crime as a ``sleeping tiger'' beyond the consciousness of national leaders, asked for a national wake-up call on gang-related crime.

The chief convened the summit after he and Mayor James Hahn traveled to Washington, D.C., last year to meet with federal officials about the growing gang problem.

While crime in Los Angeles dipped 22 percent in 2003, more than half of the city's roughly 500 homicides were gang-related, the LAPD said.

Chicago's top cop said his city, too, attributed half of last year's homicides to street gang violence.

``Gangs are no longer a local issue,'' said Chicago Police Superintendent Philip J. Cline. ``We need the federal government to step up their efforts.''

New York City has been so preoccupied with terrorism since 9-11, said NYPD Capt. Jim Osgood, that it's only now returning its focus to street gang crime, which now makes up 15 percent of that city's homicides.

``Ours is a late-blooming problem,'' Osgood said.

Denver Police Chief Gerald R. Whitman, who said his city now sees 30 percent of its homicides as gang-related, added that a cohesive plan presented to the federal government would give common voice to the cities' concerns.

``That partnership is probably the best weapon we have,'' said Louis F. Quijas, from the FBI's Office of Law Enforcement Coordination, which co-hosted the event with the LAPD.

The conference launched Sunday included a series of closed-door workshops where police department representatives, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and others in law enforcement could candidly talk shop about the tools they could best deploy to fight gang violence.

Organizers said they hoped to emerge with various results, including a national definition of gang crime and the framework for a national strategy to combat gang violence.

Participants made various references to the federal government's involvement in tackling the Mafia during the 1980s and '90s as a potential example for their efforts fighting street gangs.

They also said they need to work collaboratively as gangs migrate across the nation.

``There's no 'Gang 101' for jurisdictions to deal with this,'' said LAPD Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell. ``Our hope here is the national spotlight starts to get focused on what we see as a critical piece of the public safety picture.''

The local jurisdictions are hoping to secure more funds at a time when many, like Los Angeles, are seeing their budgets slashed - LAPD remains down about 1,000 officers, while the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department could lose more deputies under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recently released spending plan for 2004-05.

``We have cobbled and cut and pasted and done things with very scarce resources,'' said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

With some 96,000 gang members in Los Angeles County, Baca said, gang crime remains a problem - though one that is nearly 90 percent gang-on-gang violence.

``Unlike terrorism, where everyone's a victim, with gang violence it's those high at-risk neighborhoods being held hostage,'' the sheriff said.

``So the rest of us go on with our daily lives, not focusing on the problem.''

The San Fernando Valley, which registered a 27 percent drop in homicides last year, still sees its share of gang-related shootings, officials have said.

``The San Fernando Valley is certainly, by anyone's standards, not the Sleepy Hollow it was once viewed as,'' said LAPD's Jim McDonnell.

``It routinely experiences violent gang crime that's carried on by a diverse spectrum of gangs,'' he said. ``It's a broad-based problem, and it needs a broad-based approach.''

Organizers said the conference, being held at the Los Angeles Marriott Downtown, would serve as a springboard for two additional conferences to be held in the city later this year, after the region has secured federal grant funding to tackle the issue.

Bratton, who declared war on the city's gangs in 2002 after the city topped the nation in homicides, said that, despite the pressing concerns of international terrorism, attention must also be paid to the ``home-grown'' criminals in street gangs.

``Gang crime has, up until now, largely been the responsibility of local jurisdictions,'' he said. ``We need the federal government involved and their tools.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com