In the wake of two recent gang-related killings, Napa County political and law enforcement leaders are calling for a task force to better curtail gang activities in Napa County.

The gang issue was a primary topic for a rare joint meeting of the Napa County Board of Supervisors, Napa and American Canyon city councils on Tuesday.

The officials met the same day a Napa County Superior Court judge ordered 15-year-old Edgar Aguilar tried as an adult for the October murder of a rival gang member in American Canyon. The gang-related slaying in Napa in December remains unsolved.

“The gang kids don’t know city boundaries,” said Napa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Brad Wagenknecht.

According to statistics distributed at the meeting, close to 680 gang members live in Napa County.

Napa Chief of Police Rich Melton, who noted school resource officers have worked on the issue for years, proposed two new task forces to boost current gang suppression and prevention efforts, which include weekly and monthly meetings of law enforcement, probation and District Attorney personnel.

One of the two new groups would be composed of community members. The other would include police officers and other law enforcement personnel assigned fulltime to an anti-gang task force.

Community organizations that could be involved include On The Move, a group that tries to prevent group violence; the Sheriff’s Activity League; The Wolfe Center, a treatment center for teens with substance abuse problems; the Boys and Girls Clubs of Napa Valley; and the Napa Police diversion program for youths.

Melton emphasized that the community needs to rely on more than police action. “If all we do is on the suppression side, we will be back in a few years,” he said.

Napa City Councilwoman Juliana Inman suggested that teachers who know which students are involved in gang activities and can intervene be included in the community-based task force.

Napa County Sheriff Doug Koford said the law-enforcement task force would be similar to the Napa Special Investigation Bureau, the countywide anti-drug unit in place for years. The new task force, he said after the meeting, would include two Napa police officers, one sheriff’s deputy, an American Canyon police officer, a probation officer and a district attorney investigator, he said. They would gather intelligence on gang activity, gain expertise on the problem and build a rapport with the community, including families of known gang members.

Napa County District Attorney Gary Lieberstein said that school children are routinely at risk of joining gangs.

“The kids deal with these pressure every day,” Lieberstein said.

There is no public database of adult gang members on probation, he said.

The Napa Police Department has two dedicated anti-gang staff positions, according to a report distributed to the supervisors and city officials.

The American Canyon police officer who attends gang-related meetings has additional duties, according to American Canyon Police Chief Brian Banducci.

The Napa Valley Unified School District reports a 4 percent suspension rate increase for identified gang crimes on campus, a 1 percent increase over a year ago, according to the report to the Board of Supervisors and the city councils.

Out of the 228 students enrolled last year in the Napa County Office Education’s alternative programs, 139 are involved in gangs. The students averaged 42 discipline referrals for gang fights, weapon violations, drug sales and other crimes.

American Canyon Mayor Leon Garcia, a former Napa resident who worked with Wagenknecht in the late 1990s to get at-risk youths involved in basketball and other activities, voiced support for a community-based task force.

American Canyon City Councilman Ed West, who works as a correctional officer at the Napa County jail, said he liked the community-based approach to the issue which will send the statement to the gang members to “go somewhere else,” he said.

Wagenknecht said a proposal could come before each jurisdiction in March that would detail how the task forces could be set up.