Government Technology - June 2008 - (Page 33)

Curbing Gang Crime As the chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development, Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas is revamping the way the city interacts with gang members, primarily through a unique intervention program. “[This] is a program where individuals with what they call street credibility can walk up to a gang member and say, ‘Why are you doing what you’re doing? We have ways in which we can help you get some skills to get a job, to pull you away from that lifestyle,’” Cardenas said. “It’s not an easy thing to do.” Since gang members can start as young as 12 years old, convincing them to quit can be a difﬁcult task, Cardenas said. “Can a social worker do it? Probably not,” he said. “Can a police ofﬁcer do it? Yeah, they might get attention for the moment, but they’re not going to get through to them because they don’t speak their language, they’re not seen as a friend, there isn’t a connection between them other than a momentary respect because they don’t want to have to deal with the ofﬁcer.” $90 million a year, which is tough for government to do. For a local government to have the cause and effect of reducing the amount of money we’re going to collect by $90 million … makes us kind of nervous. But I knew in a short time we would actually have a rebound effect and end up collecting more money. Sure enough, within a 12-month period, we reduced and eliminated some taxes for most businesses in L.A., and we created certain exemptions. We also took out the tax reporting system for the city that had more than 70 categories; we reduced it to seven. We also eliminated many people from our tax rolls, so we focus on the collection of taxes from our larger businesses in the city, and we had more equity within that community, so fewer people were getting away without paying their taxes. We ended up having a larger tax base a year later than we did the year before. GT: CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE ROLE TECHNOLOGY PLAYED? CARDENAS: We had to fortify our tax collection system. That’s why we had a staggered implementation — we had to reconfigure our tax collection and notification system so that notifications went out on time with the new information. And we had to give the businesses enough time to interpret the new situation with their accountants, so that they could go ahead and properly report. We had to invest several million dollars into revamping our tax collection system. We did it in a way that we didn’t have any glitches; we were prepared for it, and it ended up being flawless. When we simplified our system from 70-plus categories down to seven, we had to not only re-create forms, but because we allow people to report online, we had to have that reporting system upgraded for the city, and we had to contract and sign a new contract with the third-party provider for our tax collection system. It was a successful event. It was kind of scary because we had technology that we have to recommit and readjust, and we had [to deal with] the legality of making sure we have proper notification so people couldn’t try to get themselves exempt because we misinformed them. GT: DID THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT COVER THE COST OF IMPLEMENTATION? CARDENAS: Exactly. Everything was covered within the existing budgets and everything was covered and fortified, and A gang interventionist is, more often than not, a former gang member, and that’s what gives him street credibility, Cardenas said. Since 2000, when Los Angeles started investing more earnestly in intervention prevention programs, youth homicides and youth violence has slightly decreased each year. “In my legislation, I required the [California] Department of Corrections, which actually gives out the money to local governments, to report back to the state of California about how many programs they utilize the money for, how many youth were helped, etc.,” Cardenas said, adding that technology plays a role in the required documentation from these organizations. “Everybody is using computers; everybody is communicating by e-mail now.” Cardenas said that the average intervention prevention program costs the government about $1,200 to $1,300 per person, while the state spends more than $40,000 per year to incarcerate an adult, and more than $90,000 per year to incarcerate a youth. “This preventive intervention investment is saving the state millions of dollars,” he said, “and over time, billions.” 33 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - June 2008

Government Technology - June 2008 Contents Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions For... 3 Technologies That May Change Your Job ...And Your Life Loosening Medicaid's Grip Better Living Through Technology Immersive Itineraries Help Yourself Taking the Bait Shared Connection Up Close Spectrum Products Personal Computing signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Digital Tactics for a U.S. Recession E-Dilemma Stifling Community Innovation Leadership Interview Estonia Becomes E-Stonia If It Were Up to Me …

Government Technology - June 2008

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