North County Gang Enforcement Collaborative

The Edward Byrne Memorial Discretionary Grants Program, administered by the Office of Justice Programs' (OJP's) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), furthers the Department's mission by assisting state and local jurisdictions in improving the criminal justice system and assisting communities in preventing drug abuse and crime. In fiscal year 2007, the Edward Byrne Memorial Discretionary Grants Program will focus on funding local, regional, and national efforts within six major categories: 1) targeting violent crime; 2) preventing crime and drug abuse; 3) enhancing local law enforcement; 4) enhancing local courts; 5) enhancing local corrections and offender reentry; and 6) facilitating justice information sharing. All categories combat, address, or otherwise respond to precipitous or extraordinary increases in crime, or in a type or types of crime.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department, along with its multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional partners, will use the FY 2007 Targeting Violent Crime Initiative award to support the North County Gang Enforcement Collaborative in targeting and reducing violent crime, gangs, and any activity resulting in violent crime and gang violence in the North San Diego County area. Program partners include the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's Vista, San Marcos, and Fallbrook stations; the Police Departments of Carlsbad, Oceanside, and Escondido; California Highway Patrol; County of San Diego Probation Department; County of San Diego Health and Human Services' Children's Services Department; San Diego Association of Governments; County of San Diego District Attorney's Office; and the U. S. Attorney's Office.

The North County Gang Enforcement Collaborative will hold bi-monthly suppression operations, train uniformed personnel on responding to gang members, meet monthly to plan program operations, devise a system for data collection and inter-agency sharing, and utilize Graffiti Tracker to share information on gang-related activities within the target area.

The San Diego Association of Governments will conduct the outcomes evaluation, using a pre- and post-period design. Data will be examined graphically on a monthly basis to include documenting suppression operations and tracking crime and arrest trends.

CA/NCF