Hundreds of officers in Salinas for gang symposium

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from all over the state and the country were in Monterey County this week, for the annual gang symposium at Sherwood Hall in Salinas.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Salinas Police Department, the Department of Corrections and the Probation Department host the event every year. It’s to update officers on some of the big issues like gangs, drugs and officer safety, as well as share information to combat these problems.

There are more than 3,000 people in Monterey County who are in gangs or are associated with them. Most of them belong to the Norteño or Sureño gangs.

“More of them are born in the Salinas and Monterey County area,” Salinas Police Officer Justin Salinas said. “Before, early 90’s, mid 90’s, (they) migrated from Southern California so we are seeing more males from Salinas that are becoming part of gangs.”

Officer Salinas is part of the department’s Violence Suppression Unit. He has noticed more gang members from the area are joining gangs considered to be southern.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said the gangs’ level of sophistication is increasing.

“It’s interesting because the things we’re seeing at the county jail, are very, very similar to what the state prisons are seeing in organization, in things that they do with members or how they get to other people,” Cmdr. John Thornburg said.

They believe it could be related to AB 109. Realignment sent lower-level offenders to local jails instead of prisons.

Also a topic of discussion was fentanyl, which can be 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The opioid, when mixed with heroin or cocaine, can create an even stronger high and can be dangerous to cops who handle it.

“You’re seeing a couple cases recently in the news where officers have been contaminated with it if you will just by handling it during a case,” Thornburg said. “They accidentally grabbed it, absorbed it, inhaled it somehow, not intentionally obviously. And then the ongoing threat to people who are using it. We had a case last year where a young lady was bringing in a bunch of fentanyl.”

Officers are learning what it looks like, how to handle it, how to prosecute it.

Last, officer safety was addressed. According to the FBI, 66 officers were intentionally killed in 2016, up 61-percent from the year before. This year that number is at 30.

The conference is looking at the role of social media in these cases.

“How Facebook Live is showing up more and more in these types of cases,” Thornburg said. “Suspects are filming themselves or broadcasting themselves on Facebook Live. Does that embolden them? Does that give them an audience for what they’re doing? With these platforms out there, it can be a danger for the officers.”

And perhaps learn from each other how to prevent it from happening again. They say networking is helping them bring new ideas back to their originating agencies.

“We are receiving instruction from other agencies, from different parts of California, so they bring different viewpoints and different experiences that we’re able to take back to our PD and our officers,” Salinas said. “Also it’s great for networking. We network with a lot of these other agencies, gang investigators, federal, state local so it’s a good experience for everybody.”