Santa Rosa police chief plans to tackle ‘rising’ gang violence. Here is his plan, and what he’s seeing on the streets

There have been five homicides, four of which police say were gang-related, in Santa Rosa since Jan. 1. The Santa Rosa Police Department is now feeling the pressure to act.

After two Santa Rosa kids were shot and killed in separate acts of gang violence in a recent eight-day span, Police Chief John Cregan redoubled his calls for the return of his department’s Gang Crimes Team, a division disbanded in 2019 over staffing issues.

Cregan said the unit is even more necessary now because of what he describes as an increase in access to illegal firearms and gang activity among local youth.

The former sergeant, who served in and led the gang division years earlier, plans to have the team ― made up of one sergeant and four detectives ― ready before the end of the year.

Its mission will be fourfold: enforcement, prevention, intervention and community education.

Press Democrat staff writer Madison Smalstig spent nearly two hours with Cregan on Tuesday for a deeper conversation regarding local gang activity, his proposal to curb violent crimes and why he believes the team would not be a step back from community policing.

Here is her interview, with answers edited for brevity.

The Press Democrat: You’ve publicly said you want to restart your department’s gang crimes team. Outside of these two recent tragic deaths, what are you seeing that would indicate a need for this team?

Chief John Cregan: There’s this really bad combination of easy access to firearms — right now with these ghost guns — and the glorification of possessing a firearm on social media. They get to “look cool” by posting TikTok videos flashing a ghost gun. Then you have young, 15-year-old kids who are possession of these illegal guns, and when they get in a confrontation there’s more temptation to use it. I think that's why you're seeing an uptick in some of the violence; what used to be a fistfight is now ending up with someone dying from a gunshot wound.

Gang members are resourceful, they know all kinds of ways to display their gang ... participation — ways schoolteachers, parents, even police aren't recognizing. From clothing, shoe laces, symbols — all these represent different things in the gang culture.

The need is not only to have dedicated subject matter experts who are developing gang knowledge, but also gang intelligence that’s going on in the community. So, when these violent crimes occur, they quickly know who the key players are.

We have seven young people now who are under arrest. Their lives are going to be altered forever. How are we able to help these — like a 14-year-old girl who was involved in one of these homicides, how tragic is that? That weighs heavy on me. What can we do earlier in her life to give her resources so she doesn't get involved in a gang lifestyle?

PD: In the time since you began as chief, just about a year ago, how has your department handled gang activity? And how will the revived gangs team operate differently?

Cregan: About a year and a half ago, we created the Special Enforcement Team — it's four officers and one detective — and they interact with a lot of gang members, but they're focused on violence reduction and getting firearms off the street.

Now, we're going to have the Special Enforcement Team focused on street-level enforcement out there in uniform. Then we're going to supplement them with the four gangs detectives with a sergeant. They're going to be like sister units.

I think it's going to be extremely impactful for being able to identify — and I think we're going to see a higher closure rate — of gang crimes that are committed in our city. This team is going to help us to better identify some of those outstanding suspects, locate them, arrest them and lead to successful prosecution.

PD: What was the team like when you were part of it?

Cregan: I think it was extremely effective. When I was in the gang crimes team, we had seven dedicated detectives and one sergeant.

I testified as an expert 26 times in three different Bay Area counties. We lost that when we lost these gang detectives, and so we want to bring that back. Our violent crimes detectives are still extremely knowledgeable on gangs, but without having that dedicated gang crimes team, you just naturally don't have that true expertise.

We used to do a Gang Resistance Education and Training program, a seven-week program where we were interacting with youth in the community, talking to them about the dangers of gang involvement. I'd love to be able to bring back that program.

At the Puerta Villa Apartments on West Ninth Street, one of the more gang-impacted areas at the time, we had a big community barbecue. It was a synergy moment between us and the community. We were showing them the team is here to help support — let's come together to decrease the violence in this community.

PD: Why wait until now to reform the gangs team?

Cregan: What was holding me back was just the staffing that we continue to struggle with. When I stepped into the role of chief, we had 21 sworn vacancies — an overwhelming amount.

In July, we’re actually going to be over hiring — but many of those officers are still in training.

I can't start a gangs crime team until I have a foundation, and I'm confident that no later than the end of this year I'll have enough officers off of training that I'm going to be able to recreate this team.

PD: What are some of the qualifications of the detectives and sergeant that will be part of this team?

Cregan: We really want a well-rounded person. A heart to serve our community, a willingness to work with victims impacted by gang violence. It's so important for me, and in the gang crimes team, to understand that even gang members need to be treated with respect.

It’s about how do they get that person back on track to a successful life staying out of criminal behavior, but also to be able to get a statement from them when they're involved in a serious gang crime.

You're interacting with some of the most violent criminal offenders in society, and you need someone who's willing and able to do that.

Like in this case this week — those were seven individuals that had just committed two very violent acts, and within days our detectives are entering those homes, apprehending violent gang offenders. It's a tough job at the end of the day, but it's something that can also be really rewarding.

When I look back in my 24 years, my time as a gang crime detective was absolutely the most rewarding and enjoyable part of my career.

PD: Why is that?

Cregan: You felt like you were making a meaningful difference. And you were always learning something new. We literally have dozens of different gangs and gang subsets here in Sonoma County, and you get to see the different cultures of these gangs and what draws people to the gang life.

It was fascinating to see some of the common themes that led young men and women to be involved in gangs. For me, it was just like how can we like legitimately come together as a community to disrupt that so kids aren't getting involved in these gangs.

PD: What does gang activity look like today in Santa Rosa? Has there been an increase in recent years? If so, do you have data that shows that?

Cregan: It's easy to quantify the number of guns seized. That's gone up dramatically. Last year, we saw 236 firearms seized and 74 of those were ghost guns. Already this year, we seized 128 guns and 25 ghost guns.

Gang crimes, sometimes those are harder to track because you see an act of violence but it’s not clear if every single one has a gang nexus or is rooted in gang violence.

The last two homicides were undisputedly gang things — all parties involved had some connection to criminal street gangs. That you saw, clear gang evidence collected through witness statements and evidence collected.

Where I'm seeing one of the biggest trends is two things: easy access and the number of firearms on our streets, and the younger age of those involved in gang participation.

We're talking now as young as 11, 12, 13 years old. What we're also seeing is sophisticated gang members knowing there's less consequences for juveniles who are committing violent crimes — and using that to manipulate these youth into committing some of the gang violence.

Younger boys and girls being involved in street gang activity and using firearms as part of gang altercations, gang retaliation — that's what we saw in both these cases with multiple juveniles involved. It's really disturbing to see. It's so much more serious than just putting a cute little video on social media.

I think this is an opportunity for parents to have a conversation with their children about not just the legal consequences, but the real-world consequences of being involved in a gang. And unfortunately, two young men felt those consequences and understand those consequences. And those families are going to be dealing with this tragedy for years to come.

PD: What specifically will this team be tasked with doing?

Cregan: It's going to be four prongs that we've had before: enforcement, prevention, intervention and community education. Undeniably, we're going to be going out there. We're going to be working on some of the repeat offenders. We're going to be working on those who are committing violent acts in our community, those who are in possession of firearms. We’ll be conducting probation and parole searches. We'll be going out and doing proactive gang operations. We're going to be going in some of our gang-impacted neighborhoods and working with our community for that enforcement.

But we're going to be working on the prevention side of things things, helping some of our youth to never get involved with gangs in the first place.

And the intervention side of it is, maybe a 14- or 15- year-old who is already actively involved in gangs, our team can help give them resources to get out of the gang lifestyle. We're really on the front lines of being able to help divert youth.

And then the community education … is talking to parent groups, to school teachers and other nonprofits to be able to help them.

PD: You’ve spoken about the importance of being proactive rather than reactive when it comes to crime — and now in relation to the new gang crimes team. How do you think you can accomplish this?

Cregan: One of the things that I've really been looking at is how do we use data better to to allocate our resources and understand where are some of the greatest community concerns. It's not just saying heavily saturate those areas with law enforcement resources, but how do we start working on some of the environmental things — can we work with other city departments about maybe the need for more streetlights in an area? Or maybe we need some more graffiti abatement in that area?

We’re going to be able to show our community we’re doing everything we can in Santa Rosa to build a safe environment for everyone in our community.

PD: People might find this plan as a step back from community policing or worry that some groups are at risk of being profiled. How would you respond to that?

Cregan: The most important thing to understand is the realities of combating gang crimes is you have to have an enforcement element. But you can have a gang enforcement team while still treating people with respect and dignity.

I set the tone as chief of police, and I build the organization that I want our officers to represent. I'm making it a priority that this is how we're going to treat community members.

PD: What are the primary goals for restarting the team? And how will the team’s effectiveness be measured?

Cregan: I want to see a reduction in our homicide rate. I want to see a reduction of shootings. Not so much see a quota of an increase in arrests, but I want to see a decrease in the violent crime in our community. I'm confident that the gang crimes team is going to play a key role in helping me reach that objective.

We have a dedicated crime analyst team here so they're able to provide detailed data. We’re going to be examining how many cases are assigned to this team? How many arrests are made with this? How many search warrants do they serve?

Where they're going to be most definable is when you start seeing a reduction in violent crime.

PD: Some residents we’ve spoken to in the area where these two recent deaths occurred said they don’t feel as safe as a year or two ago. What would you say to those people — and what would you say to the larger Santa Rosa community?

Cregan: I've lived here in Santa Rosa with my family for many years, so I understand the personal concerns as a resident. But Santa Rosa is a safe community for all — and we do have these isolated acts of violence. It's disturbing, it's scary and it makes all of us kind of reel back. But this is a priority for me as the chief of police and for our police department to be able to start providing more resources in our community.

If you have any type of community meeting, invite us and invite me — I never say no to a community meeting invite. I'll go to everyone and find a way to be able to get there.

If community members get nothing out of the tragedies we've seen — it's an opportunity for us to come together. Let's come together. Let's start working toward our shared vision of a safe community for all here in Santa Rosa.

You can reach Staff Writer Madison Smalstig at madison.smalstig@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @madi.smals.