Sheriff’s Office pledges New Detective to Gang Task Force

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office has assigned an additional detective to the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team (SCCACT). SCCACT was established in 2010 in an effort to join local and state law enforcement agencies to combat gang and drug violence in Santa Cruz County. The team’s focus is to conduct gang and hard drug sales suppression throughout the County. Gangs are not concerned with jurisdictional boundaries and therefore the Sheriff’s Office and SCCACT are committed to gang and hard drug suppression throughout the County.

SCCACT identifies, investigates and arrests local gang members and often plays a critical role in providing much needed intelligence information to agencies investigating major cases involving gangs. A high percentage of murders and other high profile crimes are committed by gang members.

The Gang Task Force has seized over 78 firearms since 2012 alone. These firearms are often stolen during residential burglaries and used in gang crimes. Taking these guns off of the streets and out of gang members’ hands has prevented more serious crimes from happening.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office is dedicated to the success of SCCACT and has just assigned another full time detective to the unit to augment the team’s strength, bringing the total number of committed Sheriff’s Office personnel to four. The Sheriff’s Office intends on committing additional resources in the future, if needed.

Sheriff Hart stated, “We will dedicate the resources that are needed to actively pursue and arrest those gang members who are causing harm in our community. The gang activity that is occurring in South County must stop. The Sheriff’s Office will do everything we can, in partnership with other local law enforcement agencies, to quell the senseless violence that has been occurring.”