GILROY
– They’re called Gilroy’s
”
Lucky 7.
”
But don’t be fooled by the moniker.
Compiled of the Gilroy Police Department’s seven most worrisome
criminals, the GPD’s Lucky 7 list has become one of the city’s most
effective crime-fighting tools since its inception in 1998.
GILROY – They’re called Gilroy’s “Lucky 7.” But don’t be fooled by the moniker.
Compiled of the Gilroy Police Department’s seven most worrisome criminals, the GPD’s Lucky 7 list has become one of the city’s most effective crime-fighting tools since its inception in 1998.
“It’s our version of the FBI’s Top 10,” Mayor Tom Springer said. “It has been extremely effective in catching bad guys.”
During the last five years at least 85 percent of the more than 140 individuals whose names have been placed on the GPD’s infamous list have been either arrested for various types of criminal activity or they have moved from the Gilroy area due to the constant police pressure, according to the GPD.
Designed as a tool to keep Gilroy officers informed and alert to wanted fugitives and “at risk” convicted criminals on parole or probation, the Lucky 7 is comprised mostly of gang members, violent crime offenders and drug dealers.
The list is updated periodically when a member is arrested or has moved from the area, and it is usually maintained at seven people.
“These are people involved in crime with a propensity to stay involved in crime,” said Sgt. Greg Flippo, commander of the GPD’s Anti-Crime Team, which compiles the Lucky 7 list. “We want to give extra attention to these people because information we get from the street or other places often leads us back to the same guys who are involved in crime. Lucky 7 reminds the patrol officers who these guys are.”
Once a member of the Lucky 7 is arrested, a new criminal is added to the list. Police are not given any more rights to search or contact Lucky 7 members than anybody else, but what the list does do is implant the faces and names of the criminals in the minds of police officers, Flippo said.
Posters donning the mug shots, names and criminal backgrounds of the Lucky 7 are hanging on walls throughout the police station, and patrol officers are offered condensed sheets to take with them on their shifts.
“We call it ‘selective enforcement,’ ” said Flippo, who would not provide any specific names of past or present Lucky 7 members. “And as you can tell by the numbers, it has been successful in assisting our investigations.”
While other local crime agencies such as the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department have similar lists of wanted criminals, the Lucky 7 is unique in the fact that past offenders on probation and parole – not only fugitives – are included in the list.
“I think it’s great the department is being pro-active like this,” City Councilman Bob Dillon said. “This program focuses on prevention before the crime happens, which I wish there could be more of because it seems to work.”
The Lucky 7 also differs from other criminal lists because it is not available to the public – due in large part to its inclusion of non-fugitives.
“If this information went out to the public we would be jeopardizing our cases,” Flippo said. “If somebody sees their name on the list or their friends see their name, it hurts our chances of apprehending and monitoring that person.”
But arrest is not the only way a Lucky 7 member can be removed from the GPD’s ill-famed list.
Several former criminals who were designated for the Lucky 7 following parole made their way off the list after proving they had turned their lives around, Flippo said.
“These individuals benefited from the constant monitoring,” Flippo said. “It made it too hard for them to go back to their old habits, so they decided to straighten up.”
Of course, there are others who frequently cycle on and off the list depending incarceration dates.
Flippo said for those people Lucky 7 often gets them off the street before they hurt others or themselves.
“Some people will never change,” he said. “Lucky 7 does a good job of reminding the officers who those people are.”
