As a gang investigator in California I often feel that I am on the front lines of new case law and legal defense techniques used to counter successful gang prosecutions. In recent years the pendulum has swung in favor of the gangsters, to the detriment of law enforcement.
A few relatively recent negative developments — one, a state Supreme Court decision and the other a legal defense strategy — have highlighted the need for doing thorough documentation and gang contacts.
The need to document
First, let’s address that state Supreme Court decision in People v. Prunty. The court found you have to prove a subset of a gang committed a crime rather than argue that the umbrella organization is responsible for it. In other words, you can no longer say a crime was committed for the benefit of the Norteno criminal street gang. Rather, you have to show how it benefited whatever subset committed the crime.
So if three C Street Nortenos commit a robbery, in California you have to show how it specifically benefits the C Street Norteno gang. You can’t just say it benefits the Norteno gang as a whole. This becomes problematic when Nortenos from different crews, cliques, or subsets commit crimes together (as they often do). This is now our cross to bear in California and hopefully it won’t happen in other states.
Second, let’s examine the defense strategy. In gang predicate reports we list contacts we — and other officers — have had with the defendants in the case. We do this to show a pattern of gang membership and gang activity. These contacts come in the form of field contacts, crime reports, interviews (custodial and noncustodial) and so on. A common defense strategy we have been seeing in the past five years is to subpoena every officer listed in the gang predicate report and to try to jam them up on the stand regarding:
- The minute details of the contact (which officers were on scene, what was the reason for the contact, and so on)
- The legality of the contact (if it was a consensual encounter, was the interviewed subject truly free to go)
The defense is relying on officers not remembering all the details of an old contact so it will be thrown out.
So, with all these setbacks, it is now more important than ever to document gang contacts. It’s not enough for just gang detectives to be doing this either. Patrol officers, motor cops, school resource officers, all need to be involved in this. Here are some ways to ensure everyone is involved in this process.
1. Make it simple
Checklists are a great, simple way to expedite the process. They also ensure that officers who aren’t necessarily gang experts know to ask the right questions. Below are some sample questions that any officer can ask to get basic gang information. This checklist was provided by Redwood City Police Department Det. Ramiro Perez, Street Crime Suppression Team.
These questions can be part of a Field Interview Card or a stand-alone document. The information still needs to be vetted by gang detectives using corroborating information.
2. Make it easily accessible
Documenting gang contacts electronically is a great way to go. It decreases the amount of time it takes for the information to get where it needs to go. My agency and many of the surrounding agencies use the RIMS system for data entry, dispatch and reports.
With RIMS, field contacts are automatically documented and officers can go into the call and add notes such as what the gang members were wearing or what they said. Regardless of what type of electronic reporting format your agency uses figure out a way to make it easily accessible to all officers and easy to use as well.
3. Make it beneficial to the documenting officer
No one likes extra work. Cops really hate anything that involves extra documentation and report writing. That means it is even more important to explain the need for doing it. It’s pretty simple: Better documentation means better gang cases which results in lengthier jail and prison sentences.
So, troublemakers won’t be on the streets causing extra work for everyone. These days it’s hard to keep crooks locked up for long periods of time which is frustrating for most officers. This makes stiffer sentences that gang enhancements offer to be a great selling point.
Another smart move is to reach out to officers who want to get into gang units. It is a good opportunity for them to show their knowledge and work ethic to gang detectives.
So be thorough and detailed. Like we learned in the academy, if it isn’t documented it didn’t happen.
