Logan targets gangs

LOGAN — Logan police plan to focus efforts this summer on gang-related and juvenile crime.

The department has shifted 12 employees to a new Special Operations division, with the group's major focus being the handling and prevention of crime among youth and, more specifically, gang members.

"We're going to make it as uncomfortable for them (gangs) as we can," said Logan Police Capt. Dave Tarbet. "We don't want them here. If they think they can come into this town and start behaving in ways that are inappropriate, they're wrong."

The new division is led by Tarbet and includes Lt. Richard Salvesen, two sergeants and seven detectives, most of whom were school resource officers. The division also will handle auxiliary operations such as the department's D.A.R.E. program, warrants and Peer Court.

The creation of the new division comes just more than a year after the department eliminated its Community Services division, which focused on many of the same things. That division was eliminated in early-2005 in an attempt to consolidate services and save money, Tarbet said.

"The chief felt the quality and attention of efforts we were putting on juvenile and gang-related stuff was better when we were a division," Tarbet said. "He just felt like the direction got a little too fragmented."

Tarbet said police noticed a significant increase in gang-related crime earlier this year, including more than 50 incidents of vandalism in March. The amount of vandalism has decreased since then, but nearly every week gang-related spray painting is reported.

Tarbet said the gang unit will to try to curtail juvenile crime by taking a no-tolerance approach on everything from jaywalking to serious crimes such as assault.

"The culture of what they do is not wanted here," Tarbet said. "It (juvenile crime) always increases in the summer, so we're going to address that in a very aggressive manner."