SEATTLE - A recent spike in deadly gang violence in the city has led the Seattle Police Department gang unit to ask all officers for help, according to an internal police e-mail obtained by KING 5 News.

The e-mail, sent by the head of the gang unit to patrol officers, lieutenants, detectives and others, announced a special enforcement emphasis, "to disrupt and dismantle the criminal street gangs responsible for the increase in shootings and homicides in the South and East Precincts."

To implement this operation, the gang unit says, "it is crucial to collect all pertinent information about what is known about these organizations and their members."

In soliciting information from officers on the ground who deal with the gang members, the gang unit lieutenant says, "time is of the essence."

While the crime rate across the city is the lowest in four decades, the police department is dealing with a flare up in gang violence. In all of 2007, there were seven homicides in Seattle with gang ties. There have been five such killings already this year.

On January 3, 17-year-old Allen Joplin was shot to death at a back-to-school party in Lower Queen Anne. A week later, the body of 14-year-old DeChe Morrison was found behind a car in the Rainier Valley. He had been shot and killed. In the early hours of January 26, someone gunned down and killed 25-year-old Maurice Allen outside a Capitol Hill nightclub. Later that night, Perry Henderson, 18, was shot in the stomach near the intersection of S.119th St. and Beacon Ave S. He later died of his injuries. On January 30, the owner of a Central District restaurant was gunned down and killed. Rey Alberto Davis-Bell, 23, a suspected gang member is accused in the killing.

Seattle Police Deputy Chief John Diaz told KING 5 News last month there is a common link for the first three killings mentioned above.

"There certainly is a rivalry between different groups," said Diaz on January 29. "There are two groups that are definitely going to get a lot more attention than they wish they had gotten from the Seattle Police Department.

Deputy Chief Diaz mentioned at the time the police department was beginning a more focused enforcement strategy to stem the violence. He explained that would essentially mean targeting gang members and people with known ties to gangs. The special emphasis announced in the internal email appears to be a part of this strategy.