Gang Expert Warns of Deficiencies in Program

The Los Angeles City Council’s pioneering L.A. Bridges anti-gang program will fail unless its efforts are specifically directed at certain types of youths in gang-infested neighborhoods, according to a report by Malcolm W. Klein, a distinguished USC professor involved in the initiative.

Klein’s report has touched a nerve in City Hall, where the L.A. Bridges program was created after the September 1995 slaying of 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen. Gang members’ killing of the child, whose family made a wrong turn into an alley, sparked an outcry from politicians eager to address gang violence.

The City Council created a committee to deal with gang problems, headed by Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, the architect of L.A. Bridges.

The committee, which met Monday but did not discuss the Klein report, raised several concerns about evaluation of the program’s results, which is essential to determine whether L.A. Bridges is meeting its goals.

But Klein said the operators of the program could not be evaluated on something they weren’t asked to do: prevent gang involvement.

“If they don’t address the gang problem directly, then they won’t be in a position to say, ‘What we did caused a reduction in gang crime,’ ” Klein said.

He also objected to the widening of the program to accommodate council members who want to offer it in their districts. He said that the move was “pure politics,” which contributes to lessening the impact of the program.

Instead, the city should concentrate on areas infested with gangs because other youths are at risk of becoming gang members.

He said his experience with the city has provided valuable yet extremely frustrating lessons in “town and gown” relationships. He said the city is in dire need of gang reduction and that he hopes expectations are met.

“In my view,” Klein said, “[city officials] are going to be sorely disappointed,” Klein said.

In his sharply worded critique of the fledgling program, Klein, who is a nationally recognized gang expert, said the absence of efforts directed at specific gangs will so dilute the impact of the multimillion-dollar L.A. Bridges effort that it will turn into yet another one for so-called at-risk youths.

Even the initial requests distributed to potential operators of the program failed to ask for specific gang prevention or intervention strategies, he said.

“My genuine fear . . . is that a major gang intervention program--the nation’s largest in the city with the greatest need--will quickly evolve into non-gang programs” and do no more to reduce involvement in gangs than “the very city-backed programs that were de-funded in order to build L.A. Bridges,” Klein wrote in his report.

But city officials rallied around their major anti-gang initiative Monday, saying it is too early to attack it and that Klein omitted several elements that will address gang intervention and prevention.

Klein, along with city officials, admits that L.A. Bridges’ main goal is lofty: to reduce gang crime by directing efforts at the most likely gang recruits, middle school youths in their neighborhoods. For that reason, Klein said in an interview, his expectations were high.

“I have no objection to spending money for good programs for youth, but please don’t call it gang prevention,” Klein said.

Ridley-Thomas defended L.A. Bridges as an effort “to step up to the plate and deal with a problem that continues to mar the city of Los Angeles. It must be allowed a chance to succeed. . . . I think it’s premature, I think it’s precipitous” to attack the program.

Nonetheless, city officials credit Klein for his guidance and suggestions when the program was being developed. Klein removed himself from the program because a potential conflict of interest could have developed if he consulted with operators of specific programs as well as evaluated the overall initiative.

Gloria Clark, director of human services and the neighborhood development division of the Community Development Department, said she is writing a response to Klein pointing out serious omissions in his report. She defended the program, saying subsequent proposals have specifically addressed gang intervention and that gang prevention will be targeted.

Klein’s study is “not at all a complete reflection of what the city has put into place,” Clark said.

Still, others in the city say they too have concerns about how well the effort will be evaluated and whether a large-scale program with money spread throughout the city would be effective.

“Public funding spread too thin doesn’t produce a sufficient catalyst of change,” said Councilman Mike Feuer. “I’m very hopeful Bridges succeeds. I just think we have to be very cautious about targeting our resources in a way that money is disbursed too widely.”