District attorney’s gang report draws questions from supervisors and public over data and racial interpretation

The Santa Clara County District Attorney presented an abbreviated report on alleged trends in gang‑related crime at the Public Safety and Justice Committee on May 8, and the committee voted to receive the report while directing staff to return with additional data after public and supervisor questions.

District Attorney staff walked supervisors through adult and juvenile gang‑related charging data from the office’s review period; the report noted an overall small share of cases. The DA’s office said it reviewed roughly 47,000 referrals to the office during the reporting period and that 99 cases were referred to the specialized gang team for charging consideration; 51 of those ultimately resulted in gang‑related charges, the report said.

The presentation prompted immediate pushback from community advocates and several supervisors who said the report’s phrasing and a slide titled “defendants who are white were as likely to be charged with a gang crime” created a misleading impression when not paired with raw counts. Organizer Raj Jayadev said the slide was “the title of the slide on that big screen that says defendants who are white were as likely to be charged with a gang crime. So that was the plan,” and demanded release of the raw underlying data for public review.

Other public commenters and community organizations argued the DA’s summary downplayed longstanding disparities in who receives gang enhancements. “If the DA wants to claim we’re colorblind, then the raw data must be released for public review,” said Annalisa Zamora of the Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition. Several speakers asked the DA’s office to publish the raw case counts and the racial breakdown of the full pool of referrals so independent analysts could verify the office’s percentages.

The DA acknowledged the disproportionate representation of people of color historically and said the slide was not intended to rebut that context. “I am in no way trying to argue that we are charging white defendants with the gang enhancement as often as we are people of color,” the DA said, adding that changes in policing and caseloads had shifted the distribution of referrals over time. The DA also reported a localized increase in violent gang cases this year: as of April the office reported five homicides (four solved and believed gang‑related) and said it had charged 19 adults and juveniles with murder or accessory to murder since January.

Supervisors and legal advocates pressed the DA’s office and probation to provide clearer, matched time‑period data and disaggregated racial counts for the pool of referrals, for the cases sent to the gang team, and for the cases charged. Supervisor Lee explicitly requested the racial breakdown of the 99 referrals and the related totals; Acting Public Defender Damon Silver and others requested additional granularity (white, Black, Latinx, AAPI) and noted that aggregated or percentage‑only presentations can obscure how many individuals are actually affected.

Public defenders, civil rights groups and organizers called for transparency and cautioned against policy responses based on incomplete data — several speakers said the report could be used to justify harsher juvenile charging policies despite limited evidence. In response to community concerns and supervisor requests, the committee voted to receive the report and asked staff to come back with more granular and comparable data, including juvenile referral counts for matched time periods and racial breakdowns, in a future follow‑up (committee asked staff to estimate a return timeline during the meeting).

Ending: The committee accepted the DA’s report for the record but directed the DA’s office and probation to provide raw data and reconciled time‑period comparisons to allow independent review and to clarify whether observed short‑term increases in violent incidents represent broader trends.