Cooperation between enforcement lowers crime

Community members throughout La Cañada and the Crescenta Valley are seeing less graffiti and a decrease in vehicle burglaries thanks to a cooperative effort between law enforcement agencies in the area.

Vandalism due to graffiti began increasing several months ago when a group of juveniles who used the tag of “211-C” (211 is the penal code for robbery; “C” represents “criminals”) targeted a variety of surfaces throughout the area. Quickly the graffiti, or “tagging,” crew’s activities escalated from vandalism to burglaries and auto theft.

According to Detective Frank Diana of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, the juveniles were from Montrose, La Crescenta, and northern Glendale. In an effort to continue to support their own growing drug use, the teens added the sale of narcotics to their list of crimes.

“They [teens] began to steal to support their drug habit,” Diana said. “They were [apparently] using drugs every day and they had no jobs.”

Although the crew began as a small group of kids from the area, they began making connections with real gang members in L.A.

“They were getting drugs from the [gang members] in Los Angeles and bringing it up here to sell,” Diana said.

He added that many times teens in this area say they are associated with a gang and even dress like gang members, but for the most part, they are just kids trying to act tough. In this case, however, the juveniles had made contact with Los Angeles gangs and were beginning to be affiliated with them.

“These [local] guys start out nickel and dime-ing it, then they hook up with real gangsters,” Diana said. “When crimes start to progress they are going to be playing with the big boys. It is really life threatening.”

Diana said that the law agencies worked for several months on identifying and arresting the teens, but due to the parameters of juvenile law, the offenders were often arrested and released to their parents within a few hours. The teens were given court dates, however in the period between the arrest and their day in court, they continued to tag graffiti and burglarize. They also continued their drug habit.

The CV sheriff’s station, Glendale and CHP did not let that stop them from continuing with their pro-active stance against the teens. The agencies continued to work together, sharing information and focusing a tremendous amount of time and effort on getting the juveniles off the street.