Councilwoman Martinez discusses the spike in gang shootings in Santa Ana

By: Santa Ana City Councilwoman Michele Martinez.

Last year , Santa Ana also started off the year with a high spike in gang shootings. One shooting is unacceptable just like one pedestrian fatality is unacceptable on Santa Ana streets. In the past 10 years, over 100 people have died walking or biking and thousands have been injured. Hence, we should do what we can to help combat these gang shootings and pedestrian collisions and fatalities immediately.

Gang shootings and violence are at on all time high since the early 90’s. Many will say that it has to do with prop 47 and AB 109. Others will say we don’t have enough officers on the streets, others will say we have neglected community policing and have invested 120 million dollars annually to the police department and have seen little or no results in combating crime. Finally, others will say that very few dollars have been invested in Prevention and Intervention programs.

In my tenure I have been a big supporter of hiring more officers to address community policing and re-instating the Vice Unit ( drugs have a lot to do with gangs and shootings). Last year, I also advocated to establish a Saturday Night Lights “SNL ” program and invited many to hear from Los Angeles on the success they had and how we could do something similar. The California Endowment was gracious enough to host the meeting and invite the various groups. Unfortunately nothing came about it or it is moving very slowly.

To end, I am in favor of good policy and programs that have a good return on investment. I am ready to help with a comprehensive approach in dealing with the gang shootings and other public safety concerns like pedestrian fatalities, drugs, mental-health and prostitution. We cannot continue with the status-quo and have a band-aid approach and or arrest are way out of these problems. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel. Many communities across the U.S have success stories in how to address community policing and gang violence. It is my hope that we will be creative and innovative and step away from the traditional policing models and look at other ways that may be uncomfortable because it’s new and it’s never been done in our city.