Everett mayor, police chief tackling gang violence head on

Everett’s new mayor announced a new plan to tackle youth gang violence after a significant increase last year.

Police Chief Dan Templeman says they’ve noticed a steady increase in gang and gun violence for a couple of years, everything from graffiti and tagging to drive-by shootings.

Report: Gang-related crime is on the rise in Everett

But it got really bad in 2017 with an increase in shootings overall and a 75 percent jump in gang-related crimes in the first 10 months of the year, most committed by people under 21.

In October 2017, 14-year-old Mariner High School Freshman David Sandoval was shot and killed by a 13-year-old boy over the color of his shoes.

“Anytime you have 13-year-olds that are armed with weapons and guns and they’re using them to commit crimes, I mean that’s as a police chief, it’s completely unacceptable,” said Chief Templeman. “In my mind, we needed to do something.”

Templeman met with Sandoval’s dad, and others living in the area as well as community groups around the Casino Road area and south Everett where many of the shootings and gang issues were happening.

“And it really brought to light the situation out there and the conditions and some of the fear that the community was feeling last year,” said Templeman. “And so it allowed me to really take a look at our organization and how we were deploying our resources and make some adjustments in how we were deploying our police officer resources.”

He was hearing from people in these communities who were afraid to let their kids walk to school, play outside of their homes, or go to the store.

Late last year, Templeman started directing extra patrols in the areas where guns, gangs, and youth violence had been a problem. And in recent months, the chief dedicated a sergeant and four officers to work with gangs and engaging with communities.

In January, newly-elected Mayor Cassie Franklin made addressing the issue of gun and gang violence involving young people a priority, issuing a directive for a more wide-ranging plan that includes several initiatives.

“They really represent a holistic approach to this and it’s not just focusing on enforcement and it’s not just focusing on prevention and intervention or public education,” said Templeman. “It really looked at this issue from a big picture perspective … not treating the symptoms of the problem, but really trying to treat the disease and get at that.”

He says it’s a similar approach to efforts being used to fight the opioid crisis.

Among the new initiatives is the creation of a Gang Response Community Advisory Group. The group was formed earlier this year and has met several times. Among the members, Sandoval’s dad, police, community groups and community members, including students who have had to deal with gangs.

Templeman says in the weeks ahead they’ll be taking more steps on the prevention front.

“Enforcement is important and we are right still examining and evaluating organizationally the feasibility and the likelihood of standing up our own Gang Response Unit in the city of Everett that would be dedicated — a group of officers,” said Templeman. “It would also include a prevention and education component as well so not just enforcement, but a team of enforcement officers that can go out and work in the communities in the areas that are being hit.”

Templeman says those prevention and intervention tools are an essential tool, especially when many kids getting involved in gangs have parents or siblings who are already involved or have little parental supervision.

The Firearms Safety Program will offer free gun locks and partner with local gun shops to provide information about the dangers of not safely storing guns when they sell a gun.

“We see firearms stolen a lot in the city of Everett,” said Templeman. “We see firearms stolen out of vehicles. They’re beneath the driver seat, they are in a backpacks, they’re under a blanket in the back seat. We see firearms stolen in burglaries at people’s homes where the firearm is sitting on the night stand. Our big concern about that is that those firearms end up in the hands of the wrong people. They end up in the hands of criminals. They end up in the hands of children.”

Templeman says the goal is to have the Gang Response Unit and Firearms Safety program up and running sometime in June 2018.

In the meantime, things are looking up for the first part of this year with gang crimes down 59 percent in the first three months of 2018 compared to the same time in 2017.

Templeman said, “Our shootings are down 37 percent in the city of Everett, our drive-by shootings are down 87 percent in the first quarter compared to last year. So trending in the right direction.”

The chief is cautiously optimistic, but warns gang activity usually increases in the summer months.

Follow @https://twitter.com/HannaKIROFM