ABSTRACT
I have conducted an exhaustive review of hundreds of abatement cases and filed gang injunctions in California, as well as the case law decisions that arose from the filed and attempted cases, and the policies generated during the learning process over the past several decades. In addition to evaluating the theories related to gang injunctions and talking with hundreds of police officers involved in obtaining the injunctions, I have identified 10 recommendations or steps (five of which are covered in this chapter) that may help ensure specific gang injunctions or abatement efforts are effective, fair, and adhere to existing law:
1.Start with a motivated and knowledgeable prosecutor and police officer
2.Accurately identify the nuisance activity and the problem 3.Identify the defendants or gang to be named or targeted by
the injunction 4.Identify and describe the target location, target area, or
safety zone 5.Collect evidence
they hang out, what activities they engage in, and when they commit their crimes will all help in the analysis stage of an investigation and help accomplish the ultimate mission of obtaining the order. Every nuisance abatement case should have an investigating officer or gang investigator assigned. The role of the gang investigator is to be the expert about the current status of the criminal activity at the location, and the history or community reputation of the location. An officer who is an expert on the location helps explain to the court the reasons why there is a nuisance there and why certain injunctive terms are being sought and are justified. The gang investigator is really the eyes and ears of the prosecutor in the community. The prosecutor may know much (if not all) of what the gang investigator knows, but he or she certainly does not want to be a witness in his or her own case. When an injunction is sought in the nuisance abatement action, the gang investigator puts all of his or her knowledge about the property into a declaration for the judge. Typically, the gang investigator acquires this information from making arrests at the property, reviewing all crime and arrest reports, meeting with members of the community who are knowledgeable about the location, interviewing gang members and informants about the location, and conducting covert surveillance of the property. In most jurisdictions, an officer or detective is assigned to every felony. It only makes sense that an officer or detective should be assigned to a location where there have been multiple felonies.
