By Jon Greiner
Utah State Senator & Ogden City Police Chief

On August 20, 2010, Utah Second District Court Judge Ernie Jones signed a temporary civil injunction against the Ogden Trece (O-13) criminal gang. Members of the gang living within Weber County were served the temporary order and commanded to appear on August 31, 2010 on why the order shouldn’t become permanent. On August 31, 2010, Judge Ernie Jones may make the order permanent in that members of the Ogden Trece gang may, among other things, not associate with each other in a public place within the boundaries of the City of Ogden or face a criminal Class B misdemeanor when arrested.

A gang injunction is a court-issued restraining order prohibiting gang members from participating in certain activities. It is based on the legal theory that gang activity constitutes a public nuisance that prevents non-gang members from enjoying peace in their communities.

History *

Los Angeles, California first started experimenting with gang injunctions in the early 1980s in Pomona, West Covina, and East LA, but the injunction against the Play Boy Gangster Crips in 1987 was when these civil abatement strategies first gained national attention.

Since then, several injunctions have been implemented in LA County including in Inglewood against the Crenshaw Mafia Bloods, in Los Angeles against 18th Street and the Harpys, and in Norwalk against the Orange Street Locos to name a few. There have been just over 30 injunctions in LA County, (outside the city of Los Angeles).

Following these attempts at creative gang eradication and suppression efforts the city of Chicago, Illinois passed gang legislation for its low income housing problems with gangs. The United States Supreme court overturned this Chicago legislation with the Morales decision in 1999. Other communities have taken the Morales decision, the language of the justices, and crafted gang legislation in order to be in line with this decision. Ogden did so by ordinance and Utah did so with a gang statute in 2009, SB-16.

Since 1999, to prevent rulings against injunctions in the name of constitutionality, city/county attorneys have carefully worded their filings so that they individually name every gang member, establish a designated area where the injunction applies, and enumerate the exact activities that gang members are prohibited from doing. These generally include association with one another, wearing certain clothes, making certain hand gestures, acting as lookouts, fighting, drinking, and using drugs. Some prohibited activities are already illegal, but the injunction means that violators can be held in contempt of court , which would demand additional sanctions.

Violators who conduct activities that are normally not illegal are charged with violating a court order, which can carry a six-month jail sentence in Utah with the 2010 passage of SB-219 regarding public nuisances.

Gang injunctions form one of the most important aspects of what is referred to as the “suppression model” of anti-gang enforcement. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention stated that in communities where suppression is used injunctions may be effective in decreasing gang activity in neighborhoods and small towns.

Today

In Los Angeles today, there are 65 gang injunctions covering 50 gangs and 11,000 gang members in the City of Los Angeles. Many attribute the 33% decline in gang membership in L.A. over the past eight years (from 57,000 members in 2001 to roughly 39,000 members today) to the effective use of civil gang injunctions by city law enforcement officials. Utah made the solicitation of a minor into gang membership a crime in 2008 with SB-65.

Other California cities utilizing gang injunctions include; San Jose, Burbank, San Diego, Westminster, Pasadena, Redondo Beach, and Oxnard. The Supreme Court of California upheld the constitutionality of the use of gang injunctions, finding that gang activity fell under the definition of a public nuisance.

A gang injunction in Utah may now occur when the city/county Attorney’s Office with approval from a judge issues a restraining order against specific gang members of a particular gang. With information gathered from police officers and the public, the judge may grant a restraining order against identified members of a gang, in essence suing them. In the lawsuit, the actual gang members are mentioned, and they are forbidden to engage in a host of activities, some of which are already illegal such as selling drugs, vandalizing property and possessing weapons or facsimile of weapons (Utah 2009 SB-28). Other activities that they may be restricted from doing might include congregating in groups, being out after a particular time, or associating with each other in a public place. Each gang injunction must define a geographic area where these activities are restricted.

* Most of this information comes from a handout I received from the LA Prosecutor’s Office.  I thought it was helpful background information worth sharing more widely.