LAPD Tries to Cut Off Guns at Source

Changing the street mentality that glorifies bloodshed, crime and gangs is a common thread in anti-violence programs. But a little-known Los Angeles Police Department detail is taking another approach by cutting the supply of weapons readily available on the streets.

The Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Detail investigates how guns end up in the hands of young criminals. By locating weapons traffickers, straw purchasers and other sources, the detail’s five full-time officers--and seven others who join major sweeps--try to reduce youth violence by eliminating the sources of illegal firearms.

Modeled after the successful Boston Gun Project, the unit was launched by Police Chief Bernard C. Parks 16 months ago.

“Our main mission is to [intercept] firearms reaching youths under 25 and reduce the injuries and deaths in that population,” said Det. Steve Mulldorfer, who heads the LAPD detail, one of 27 in cities nationwide.

In its first year, the LAPD program helped cut the city’s murder rate of people under age 25 by 27%, according to police. Working with agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, LAPD officers have filed more than 100 gun charges, seized more than 400 guns and traced the origin of about 3,000 guns used in crimes.

Although other LAPD units make gun arrests in the course of criminal investigations, one of this detail’s main responsibilities is pursuing weapons traffickers.

“We want to hook up with any suspect that has a gun--especially juvenile suspects--and try to determine the bigger picture,” Mulldorfer said.

In the last few years, police have changed their approach toward illegal weapons possession, according to David Kennedy, founder of the Boston Gun Project and a senior researcher at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

“Up until relatively recently, very little attention was paid to firearms trafficking. Possession and crime, yes,” Kennedy said.

“Only a few years ago, [the perception was] that all these guns were stolen one at a time from houses and you couldn’t do anything about it,” Kennedy said. “That’s just not right.”

In Los Angeles, police have found that about 10% of the guns used in crimes are stolen, while 25% to 30% come from straw purchasers, who legally buy weapons for those who cannot--juveniles and felons, Mulldorfer said.

“As far as guns from the street being from burglaries--we’re not finding that,” said John Torres, assistant special agent in the ATF’s Los Angeles field division. “They’re being obtained from firearms dealers though straw purchasers.”

The LAPD detail also uses sting operations, informants and other methods to learn about illegal weapons dealers. A Porter Ranch man was arrested in December after police seized more than 200 guns from his home. His guns, police allege, were sold out of the trunk of his car.

In Boston, the local ATF branch, police and other agencies began collaborating in 1995 “to figure out where the youths were getting guns illegally and try to do something about it,” Kennedy said.

In one instance, police and federal agents realized that all of the guns traced from a Boston neighborhood were from Mississippi. Investigation revealed that a student who attended college in Mississippi came home for the weekends with more than papers and books.

In 1996, the Boston project was praised by President Clinton and the Treasury Department, and launched nationally as the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative. It was tested in 17 cities in 1997, and expanded to 27 cities the next year. This year, Clinton has proposed funding for 10 more cities.

The success of area multi-agency approaches is under study by Rand Corp., the Santa Monica-based research organization that received a two-year, $400,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice.

Historically, multi-agency efforts have been hampered in Los Angeles by several factors, including the sheer size of the city, the entrenchment of multiethnic gangs and the number of large governmental agencies that must be dealt with, said Peter Greenwood, director of RAND’s criminal justice program.

As such, officials say, some of the approaches that have been successful in other cities may not translate to Los Angeles.

Still, the ATF’s Torres said, collaboration between his agency and the LAPD’s unit is making a dent in local youth gun violence.

“By concentrating our efforts on the supply of firearms to the youths in our community, we’re able to concentrate our investigation efforts,” Torres said. “It’s a more concentrated effort--very proactive and one I’m quite proud of.”