Pasadena Police Fight Wave of Gang Violence Without a Gang Unit

The Pasadena Police Department has responded to an escalating wave of gang-related violence centering around Villa Parke in recent weeks, but for the first time in 35 years, the agency is working without a dedicated gang unit.

On the heels of gunfire that left three men dead over the past three weeks at or near the park, as well as four other people wounded over the past six months, Pasadena Police Chief John Perez discussed the city’s efforts to combat the violence through enforcement, prevention and increased cooperation between police and community members during a community forum on Thursday evening.

Two Pasadena men died and another man was critically wounded after all three were shot while sitting on a bench at Villa Parke on Tuesday.

Although the victims, who were 40 and 51 years old, were not gang members, Perez said investigators suspected their killers may have been.

A 27-year-old man who family members described as developmentally disabled was shot to death Nov. 13 along Parke Street, between Marengo and Garfield avenues, after going for a walk near his home. He also had no gang ties.

No arrests have been made in either case.

“The incidents that we’ve seen mostly relate recently to gang violence,” Perez said. “And we’re looking at victims that were not gang members.”

“We’ve had about seven incidents in the past six months here around Villa Parke. We’ve had three homicides and we’ve had four other people shot. That’s problematic for us,” he said.

“So we are investigating all these,” Perez said. “There’s a strong belief they’re related, in terms of why people are committing these. And we’re looking at this as gang activity and really trying to understand who’s involved and doing our investigations in a very objective yet continual method.”

But unlike the past three-and-a-half decades, the Pasadena Police Department is working without a dedicated gang unit after disbanding it in February as part of a series of department reforms geared toward increasing community confidence and cooperation amid nationwide calls for changes in policing.

“We did eliminate the Gang Unit that had been around since 1985,” Perez said. “We eliminated that unit of 15 officers. We moved those officers both into patrol, to have a higher number of enforcement [officers], and we also moved them into critical units and created new units.

The new units include a bike patrol unit, as well as a group of officers studying trends and precursors in an effort to prevent crime, he said.

But with the recent increase in violence, much of it blamed on gang activity, “Not having officers in neighborhoods every single day, simply stopping people who might be gang members or doing traffic stops, didn’t seem to be in the best interest of the larger issues that we’re having,” the chief said. “So we do have a temporary gang unit, in terms of officers being deployed and making sure that the whole department is focused on this issue.”

“So you will see prevention, visibility and intervention, but you also see enforcement. You will see traffic stops. You will see the need to search cars. You’ll see individuals stopped when we need to, but people also have the ability to make complaints online, to call us, to file a complaint about being stopped.”

Perez asked for the public’s cooperation to help solve the problems faced by community.

“Being stopped by the police and being uncooperative makes the situation worse,” he said. “Officers. Don’t always like to do these types of stops. However, in a time when they believe a crime has occurred, or is about to occur, I believe you want them to follow up on their beliefs, but to do it right, to do it safely and do their best to use de-escalation and gain cooperation. And we do that in hundreds and hundreds of incidents per month and thousands and tens of thousands per year.”

“We know the impact on neighborhoods when we do have to conduct traffic stops and pedestrian stops, but this will be important for us to continue to seize these weapons and stop the crime before it occurs,” Perez said. “I hope that we have the community’s support.”

He urged the community to report suspicious activity to police.

The department was also looking into using funds from asset forfeitures for rewards in serious crimes, Perez said.

In the meantime, investigators will continue to work tirelessly to bring the killers to justice, he said. “Our homicide investigators are some of the best in the business and they are here nonstop doing their work.”

Anyone with information on the recent violence is urged to contact Pasadena police at (626) 744-4501. Tips may also be submitted anonymously to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

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