YC, county ganging up on violence

Efforts to step up policing with a regional gang enforcement unit are taking shape with a public unveiling and votes by Yuba City and Sutter County boards planned for next week.

On Tuesday, the Yuba City City Council is expected to consider taking part in a 10-person regional gang task force, said City Manager Steven Jepsen.

A Tuesday press conference is being planned to unveil the gang unit as well as a vote by Sutter County supervisors, said Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams.

The area has an existing Yuba-Sutter Anti-Gang Enforcement unit formed in 2005 which brings together law enforcement agencies for a night or week to focus on gang enforcement. The new gang unit would be a continuous anti-gang effort.

Yuba City police currently have a two-officer gang unit. But the department would expand its number of officers devoted to gang enforcement to four, said Jepsen.

The council would have to consider moving police from patrol into the detectives bureau and putting more money into the budget to pay for the expanded unit.

"It requires additional funding on our part so we're asking for modification," said Jepsen.

Yuba City Police Chief Richard Doscher declined to discuss the gang proposal in advance of a city staff report to be released later this week to the council.

Doscher has been meeting with the council in study sessions this year on the need for more police staffing. At one point, he proposed a $768,000 expansion of the Yuba City police gang unit.

The council earlier declined to put up a sales tax increase needed to pay for a major expansion in policing, saying it was unlikely to be passed at a time when public financing will be needed to pay for levee repairs. But council members asked the city administration to find a way to pay for a gang unit.

There was no dollar amount immediately available for Tuesday's proposal.

Sutter County spokesman Chuck Smith had no details on the gang unit proposal. A Sutter County committee which considers law enforcement issues was expected to take up the idea Monday, said Smith.

Yuba City Councilman John Miller said the gang unit proposal stemmed from an increase in violence. Three fatal shootings occurred in a two-month period, all on Bridge Street.

Police have made arrests in one case, but community rallies against violence show the public outcry over deadly gunshots being fired on one of the city's busiest streets.

"This is a direct result of the escalation of gang violence in the area, the concern that council has had to suppress the gang violence from spreading," said Miller.

Contact Appeal-Democrat re-porter John Dickey at 749-4711 or jdickey@appealdemocrat.com