John, I read with interest your FPK Street Gang Unit account. As usual, it was very well written. There are a few areas, time frames, and actual insight to responsibilities of the earlier FPK Gang Unit that I feel I can add some valuable historical information.
FPK Gang Unit’s Early HistoryIn the beginning Rich Thomas was the one that convinced Captain Harry Mears to let us (he and I) become an investigative team with the responsibility of impacting the high volume of burglaries occurring daily in the Athens area. Fortunately, we were successful at that task. Initially though, our working together had nothing to do with gangs. That was basically the beginning of the so called Tactical Unit. The Tactical Unit name soon evolved from the Tactical Unit to the Gang Unit as it became apparent that gang members was responsible for most of the street crimes that were occurring throughout the area. I understand the name of the unit bounced around a few more times after that.
Prior to Rich and me working together on the burglary project, I had already begun identifying the gang members in the North End on my own. Rich also had an excellent knowledge of the gang guys in the Athens area, so that gave us a start and a little expertise in gangs. Rich and I continued to work together for a little while longer on gangs, but he eventually returned to patrol as a training officer. I stayed in the Gang Unit as the Gang Training deputy. Al Humphries was the Sergeant over the unit.
Select, hand picked deputies, who had shown an interest in gangs, rotated into the unit from patrol to work for a month or two. I believe three deputies were the most we ever had at one time, but that number changed every month. This gave field deputies some gang expertise to take back with them when they returned to their field assignment. Outstanding cops like Kaono, Barthel, Budds, Bartholomew, Bernsen, etc. are just a few that worked the unit. We weren’t just “simple two man teams gathering information”, although gathering information was definitely one of our main goals. Our paramount focus was to raise the level of gang expertise in the field. Deputies that passed through the unit and/or utilized our gang information were some of the most productive units in the field. This included many teams like Brad Welker and his partner, who routinely utilized the gang book and ended up knowing the Bishop Gang in their area as well, if not better, than we did. The field crews that took advantage of those books indicated how great of a resource the information was to them. Note: I still have one of the original photo books. The primary goal of the unit was to be an “us” unit rather than an “us and them” unit. I believe that goal was obtained.
This was also prior to the station split so we had the responsibility of the whole South Central area. We worked like one armed paper hangers. I believe Bill Bernsen (outstanding cop) was the one who helped me put together the first gang books that were eventually distributed to the field crews. We had every gang, and most of the gang members, throughout the South Central area completely identified. Both on file and in gang books. I don’t think Bill ever went home. An “informal attempt” to identify the gang members is an unrealistic view of the actual productivity and success of that unit.
In early 1975 I transferred to HQ Detective Bureau where I continued to be responsible for South Central Gang intelligence. While I was there I wrote the OSS program which oddly enough included “establishing the criteria for determining if an incident was gang related or not”. I’ve never seen what you wrote, so I hope we were in agreement. Sheriff Pitchess agreed to let us start the pilot OSS Program in the FPK area as we already had the gang intelligence in place, and most of the targeted gang members were identified. This program officially started in July of 1975. According to my original OSS records, the FPK Gang Unit consisted of you, Rich Leaming and Harry Smith in mid 1975. Harry might have been one of the rotating deputies, but I’m not sure. Doug Oberholster and Charles Leffler worked Detective Bureau. They were responsible for handling all the detective functions including all arrests that related to the OSS Program from 1975 through 1977. I don’t personally recall any detective functions being handled by any FPK Gang Unit personnel during that time frame. That must have started later.
That initial OSS Pilot Program subsequently expanded to include two additional gangs. The program received its final review for effectiveness in June of 1977. As you know the pilot program was very successful thanks to everyone involved. Your unit’s contributions were also outstanding. Wright, Waters, Arthur and Yarbrough were eventually added to the FPK Gang Team during this time. Waters and Arthur were especially helpful and did some very commendable work in that area to make the program the success it was.
Also during this same time frame Carson and Lynwood Stations were being established. Eventually those two stations took most of the original FPK service area, except the North End. Shortly thereafter the department received a federal grant in early 1979 that funded the first OSS station gang teams. Those new OSS Teams went to a number of stations including Lynwood, Lennox and Carson. As you know FPK did not receive an OSS team at that time. Department executives felt the current size of the station area didn’t warrant one, and they were wrong. They subsequently learned that was a mistake, and added a team later. Judging from your unit’s hard work and itemized successes it was probably beneficial to the station that they didn’t receive one.
Curtis Jackson
