In Spanish, it is called El Fantasma Azul. In English, the Blue Ghost.

While the rest of the city sleeps, the Napa Police Department’s unmarked, blue sedan creeps through the city, cruising neighborhoods where gang members are known to live. Officers observe the players, watching for signs of any clash between rival gang members.

They begin their shift with a crawl through a Collier Boulevard apartment complex, Napa’s unofficial Sureño headquarters and the place where 19-year-old Ricardo Gonzalez was shot and killed in December. Gang symbols are spray-painted on the stop signs around the perimeter of the complex. Two orange dots in the street mark the location where Gonzalez’s head and feet came to rest after he was shot.

Napa PD’s gang unit was formed in response to the fatal shooting of 18-year-old gang member Michael Arreguin in 1998. At its largest, the unit consisted of four officers whose primary duties were to keep Napa safe from gangs.

By many accounts, it was working. Almost a decade passed and Napa experienced relative quiet.

Flash forward to Dec. 8, 2007, when Gonzalez was gunned down during a gang fight. Officers Pete Jerich and Jeff Hansen are the lone soldiers in Fantasma Azul, and Hansen said the changes in the community are manifesting themselves in the street.

“When things were quiet, people said, ‘What do we need you guys for? There’s no gang problem,’” he said. Now, he said, “Violent crime, it seems to me, is on the rise.”

Officer Russ Davis, who spent seven years in the gang unit, laments its current size. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why gang activity is up now,” he said.

View from the phantom

Out on the streets, the officers’ job in the gang unit is as much about prevention as it is about response.

For gang members and others, “Just seeing the car is one form of suppression,” Hansen said.

By getting to know the players, Hansen said he can learn about the intricate network he investigates. He makes an effort to talk with the guys.

The approach may seem overly friendly, he said, but a good relationship with someone in the know can lead to useful information when police need it most. Each move is strategic and information is a valuable commodity.

During a night ride through the city earlier this year, Hansen was in the Blue Phantom when he spotted an old car plowing down Trancas.

“That’s a big-time gangster car,” he said, recognizing the vehicle.

Hansen spotted the car’s expired tags and turned on the lights and siren. The car turned into a nearby parking lot where it stopped, waiting.

Flashlight in hand, Hansen approached the car. Five young men stared up at him through the windows.

The driver of the car, a 20-year-old Napa man, was found to be driving on a suspended license. One of the boys, a minor, was on probation. All but the driver were drinking alcohol and were underage.

The scene that ensued sums up the mission of the gang unit, Hansen said: Rather than book the boys on minor charges, he traded their arrests for information.

Several admitted to claiming blue: Sureño. Hansen took down their names, ages and addresses. The move provided the unit with new information about several local gang members — information that may prove useful if the boys ever get involved in gang-related crimes, Hansen said.

“I could have charged him with driving on suspended license,” he said, “but the way I worked it, I was gathering intelligence. I let them know we’re giving them a break, and he gave up a lot of good information.”

“Now I can document who’s there, and who’s hanging out with who ... I’d trade a traffic ticket any day for the information I just got,” he said.

“It’s almost like a soap opera,” Hansen said. Police already know the “who,” he said; they just don’t yet know the “what.”

This “gang stuff is more of a brain game,” he said. “It’s almost like police work in reverse. ... Like my partner Pete says, ‘We’re not playing checkers out there. We’re playing chess.’”