Mike Hutto, a former gang member, asks Detective Eric Bradley what the city plans to do about the gangs in Lodi during a gang forum hosted by the Lodi Improvement Committee on Tuesday. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

Gang intervention program urged by local residents and committee

Members of Operation Peacekeepers work with a "missionary zeal" to intervene in the lives of Stockton gang members, to steer them to a new life, according to the group's manager Ralph Womack.

If last night's Lodi Improvement Committee meeting was any indication, there are local residents equally passionate about changing the lives of Lodi's gang members.

The committee, after hearing from an energized group of local church, government and community leaders, pledged to explore a gang intervention program in Lodi.

The meeting, billed as a forum on Lodi gang activity, was attended by roughly two dozen people, including representatives from the city's police department and Lodi Unified School District. It was held at Carnegie Forum.

And while funding and approval for such a program must still be worked out, it's clear Operation Peacekeepers — which employs former gang members to reach out to current ones — would be a model for Lodi.

"We can get farther; we can get inside their hearts," said Mike Hutto, 30, of Woodbridge, a former gang member who spent much of his youth locked up for crimes he committed in San Bernardino County.

"We know what they're going through — we've been there," added Hutto, who is not a part of Peacekeepers, but noted he'd be interested in working for a Lodi intervention program.

Without a formal program, Lodi Police officers often serve as counselors for youth while on patrol. But they will never connect with gang members the way former members do, noted Detective Nick Sareeram, one of two Lodi detectives assigned to the gang beat.

"It needs to come from someone who has lived the life," Sareeram said.

Operation Peacekeepers started in 1997 in response to Stockton's gang and youth violence. It relies mostly on grant money and works in concert with the city of Stockton.

Salary and benefits cost roughly $70,000 per year for each of the group's six gang outreach workers, Womack said.

Joseph Wood, Lodi's community improvement manager, said he'll approach Lodi city management about an intervention program, likely modeled after the Peacekeepers.

The Lodi City Council would have a final say on the matter, should the city decide to go forward with it.

Lodi Detective Eric Bradley said the department recorded eight gang-related stabbings in the past two months, a "fairly active" gang period.

The department's 50 gang-related calls for service in the past two months, however, represented less than one percent of Lodi Police's total calls. Even so, Bradley noted, residents still see gang crimes as a top concern.

Committee members including Virginia Snyder said they're in full support of an Peacekeepers-like program.

"I think we've begun something that's going to be very meaningful for the community," she said.

For more information about Operation Peacekeepers, call 937-8880 or visit http://www.stocktongov.com/peacekeepers. For more information about the Lodi Improvement Committee, contact Joseph Wood at 333-6711.

Contact reporter Chris Nichols at chrisn@lodinews.com.

(Editor's Note: This correction was posted at 4:43 p.m. Wednesday.)

A Lodi gang intervention program, known as the Gang Alternative Project, was established in the early 1990s with the help of resident Dee Porter and disbanded in 2001. This article incorrectly states that a proposal for a new gang intervention program would be the first ever in the city.

First published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008