| Keeping Watch on Gangs in Manchester
Gang Intelligence Officer Jeff Harrington conducts a training at the Manchester Boys & Girls Club.
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Thoughts of summer usually include sunny afternoons and ice cream, but the residents of Manchester, NH, are keeping an eye out for less innocent things.
Gang activity has been on the rise over the past few years and gangs have been pushing toward Manchester from other areas. With an excellent highway system and a diverse community—attributes that police say attract gang members—Manchester was becoming a gang destination, and soon graffiti began dotting the region.
At first, residents were very concerned but not well-informed, says Nicole Rodler, the Weed and Seed Site Coordinator. Last summer, Rodler explained, the media played up certain incidents and residents panicked. So Weed and Seed and the police began communicating to the community all that they could about the growing gang problem and
put more resources into fighting gangs. Now, with a full-time gang intelligence officer who works very closely with Weed and Seed and a steady flow of information from the police to the community, Rodler feels things have changed a lot. "The residents are more hopeful," she said. "They are being preventive instead of reactionary."
The police are looking at how to target the problem most effectively and at the same time involve the community as the situation changes. They are using surveillance patrols to catalog and identify graffiti and then to arrest "taggers" and make examples of them. Rodler is in contact with the police about reallocating "weeding" funds from prostitution details to these graffiti stings.
The Manchester Police Department believed that its officers could make the biggest impact before summer began and gang activity increased. The department also plans to hold training events for parents so everyone can be on the lookout for indicators of gang involvement. Community informational meetings are also being held.
Residents appear to be taking their own participation seriously. Eight neighborhood watches are now active in the Weed and Seed neighborhood, and residents continue to take part in the police department's Citizens' Police Academy, a 9-week program designed to inform citizens about the role of the agency in their community. Graduates of the academy often work as volunteers in police substations.
"We're trying to educate the community as well as being educated by them," said Sergeant Kevin Kincaid, the Community Policing Unit Supervisor. Overall, relations are good between the police and residents, according to Kincaid. "Certain neighborhoods are not as willing to work with us, but we're all going in the right direction," he said.
Kincaid attributes much of that positive interaction to Weed and Seed's involvement. "All the networking is in place," he said. "We all know each other."
For more information, contact:
Nicole Rodler
Manchester Weed and Seed Coordinator
Sgt. Kevin Kincaid
Community Policing Unit Supervisor
603–668–8711
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