Criminal street gangs are responsible for the majority of violent crime and narcotics sales in Santa Cruz County. The DA's Office aggressively prosecutes all criminal street gang members, adults or juveniles, and follows up with stringent parole and probation terms to ensure that gang members cease their illegal activity. The DA's Office is also actively engaged in gang rehabilitation programs, with an emphasis on parental education, community and vocational programs.
Recognizing the need to better coordinate law enforcement resources in the fight against gangs, in 2006 the District Attorney's Office, the Watsonville Police Department, the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office, the Santa Cruz Police Department, and the Capitola Police Department teamed up to form the Joint Agency Gang (JAG) team. The mission of the JAG team is to protect the residents of our county against gang violence through proactive, community-based responses. The JAG team provides additional officers with extensive gang knowledge and experience to suppress gang violence, to monitor those on probation or parole with gang terms, and for special events such as the Strawberry Festival, the County Fair, and the Halloween celebration in Santa Cruz. In 2009, these agencies also agreed to create an organized crime team, known as CACT, to focus on the organized-crime aspects of modern criminal street gangs and their drug trafficking activities.
In 2010, in response to the continued increase of gang related crimes, the District Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Office teamed up to create a county gang task force focused on dismantling gang leadership.
D.A. Bob Lee and Sheriff Phil Wowak plan to strategically use specialized investigators to impact a full range of crimes. Everything from intimidation, wanton violence and murder will be investigated.
"Those types of crimes don't just happen because somebody has nothing else to do," Wowak said. "It has a lot to do with the infrastructure and the key role players."
"We're going to outline who we think the major players of the gangs are," Lee said. "We want to arrest them and send them to prison."
The DA's Office has also assigned Inspector Henry Montes to help parents and communities cope with children who are at-risk because of their gang activity. Inspector Henry Montes has extensive knowledge of Watsonville gangs in Santa Cruz County. He is available to parents and community organizations to discuss gang prevention, and has authored a presentation on how to identify gang tattoos, symbols, and clothing.
For more information, please contact the DA's office at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
