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Creating a Police Gang Unit
The complexity of gang problems—territorial concerns, informant
reliability, general neighborhood safety, and drugs that are sold
in or near school zones—calls for a special police unit. However,
for a police gang unit to be successful, several factors need to
be explored before its creation so that the unit sustains support
for its unique mission over time. The police gang unit should:
- Be small and self-contained—having its own office space,
vehicles, informant funds, overtime—and its mission should be
to attack gangs that use violence, whether that violence is murder
or aggravated assault.
- Operate in close conjunction with the homicide unit, where
patterns of violence are best detected. However, the gang unit
should not be part of the homicide unit because the constantly
shifting demands created by the reactive nature of the homicide
unit would draw on the limited resources of the gang unit and
reduce its effectiveness.
In BPD, a suggestion was made to incorporate the gang unit in
the Inspectional Services Division, which had a command structure
that could absorb a new unit without significant change in the
overall departmental organization. Also, the Inspectional Services
Division was able to access information from the criminal investigation
units without arousing jealousy—a plus for a unit that must investigate
matters that cross conventional lines.
- Partner with a prosecution team so that the most effective
tool—the grand jury—can be fully employed. The thrust of the
investigation is to convert alienated gang members, and only
the prosecutor can guarantee specific legal arrangements that
affect whether crimes will be prosecuted.
- Have a liaison with designated district units, because a considerable
amount of investigative time is directed toward gangs' street
activities. After targets are ascertained and information is
developed, the district unit should be informed to take advantage
of the chance occurrences that involve district officers. In
addition, district officers should have the opportunity to learn
the value of developing and recording information.
BPD generated large numbers of arrests to maintain statistical
indicators of its impact. Unfortunately, this caused street-level
information to dry up because the frequent interruptions made offenders
wary. Thus, the department was without data that had been routinely
obtained from offenders and informants and that was necessary to
assess gang problems and initiate solutions.6
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