40 2 Police and Law Enforcement—Juvenile Porensicshands out fliers for a local business. From 6 I'M. to 9:30 i'.M, he completes his homework
before he goes to his second job at an Anaheim convention center. But the Anaheim
police do not see Ceja as a hard-working young student. In the past few years, they have
stopped, detained, and photographed Ceja five times and put his photograph in the city's
gang-tracking computer database. Each time, Ceja told them he was not involved with a
gang. But each time they ignored his claims, he says. Despite the police attention, Ceja
lias never been arrested or charged with any crime. "They seem to be doing it for the
Fun of it." says Ceja. "They take my picture, and they put it in a gang file. But I'm not a
gangster. I don't want to be identified as one." (Siegal, 1997, p. 28)Literature ReviewAggressive policing tactics and legal interventions into the lives of gang members,
particularly those that criminalize activities that are typically lawful, are becoming
more widespread. However, many argue that such tactics often lead to the harass-
ment of law-abiding youths who may fit stereotypes of a gang member as in Claudio
Ceja's case, creating a negative impact on community—police relations (Hoffman &
Silverstein, 1995). Cases such as Ceja's illustrate the fine line between cracking
down on gang members and further alienating at-risk youths.
As the literature demonstrates, antigang policing tactics serve as an imperfect
attempt to treat the symptoms and not the causes of our juvenile gang epidemic.
Two of the most common antigang policing tactics are gang-tracking databases and
civil gang injunctions. These policing tactics attempt gang suppression or deterrence
by their speed of enforcement, certainty of punishment, and severity of sanctions,
while the targeting of these sanctions is extended through an increase in gang
intelligence tracking (Klein, 1995).
Gang-tracking databases are being employed as an intelligence-gathering strat-
egy as gangs become increasingly mobile and organized. Territorial graffiti, tattoos,
symbols, and specialized clothing (for example, those indicating gang colors) are
all visual symbols that can indicate gang affiliation and are frequently combined
with a database to provide patrol officers with identification information (Owens &
Wells, 1993). Gang intelligence information gathered or received by law enforce-
ment or juvenile-related personnel are included in the database. Police departments
that utilize these gang-tracking databases detain and photograph youths who are
charged with gang activity as well as those who are only suspected of it, as in Ceja's
case. Youths often deny gang membership, leaving officers to distinguish between
delinquent behaviors and gang behavior.
Critics of these gang databases claim that minorities are disproportionately rep-
resented. Ed Chen, staffattorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
of Northern California stated:
There's a racially discriminating aspect to all these programs. In every case that we've
seen, the targets are Latino or African American youth. They can concentrate on young
black, brown, and sometimes yellow men. It's rarely used against non-minorities. (Siegal,- p. 31)