MENU TITLE: POLICE Technical Assistance Manual . Series: OJJDP Published: 88 pages 189,848 bytes DRAFT 1/92 POLICE Technical Assistance Manual Irving A. Spergel with Kenneth Ehrensaft National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program School of Social Service Administration University of Chicago Distributed by: Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse Box 6000 Rockville, MD 20850 1-800-638-8736 _______________________________ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No other group knows as much and is probably as concerned about controlling and preventing the gang problem as law enforcement. We had the advice and counsel of many expert, experienced, and highly professional police officers in the development of this manual. It's difficult to select out those who have patiently labored to inform us over the past several years about the problem and what needs to be done. But they must include the following: Detective William Alvarez, Gang Unit, Miami Police Department; Miami, Florida Sergeant Mike Bell, Portland Police Bureau, Tactical Operations Division; Portland, Oregon Commander Robert Dart, Chicago Police Department, Gang Crimes Section; Chicago, Illinois John A. Galea, Jr., Bureau of Research and Education, State of New York; Division of Substance Abuse Services, New York City, New York Deputy Chief David L. Gerdes, Joliet Police Department; Joliet, Illinois Captain Ray Gott, former Commander, Safe Streets Bureau, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department; Whittier, California Detective John Hayes, Crime Prevention Unit, Seattle Police Department; Seattle, Washington Steve Hollingsworth, Portland School Police; Portland Oregon Lieutenant C.B. Jackson, Atlanta Police Department; Atlanta, Georgia Detective Sergeant Robert K. Jackson, Gang Activities Section, Los Angeles Police Department; Los Angeles, California Lewis Jordan, Investigator, New Jersey State Police; Neptune, New Jersey Lorne C. Kramer, Chief of Police, City of Colorado Springs Police Department; Colorado Springs, Colorado Ronald Laney, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; Washington, D.C. William Logan, Director of Safety, Evanston Township High School; Evanston, Illinois Senior Officer Robert Martinez, Austin Police Department, APD Gang Liason Unit; Austin, Texas Sergeant Wes McBride, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Operation Safe Streets; Santo Dominguez, California Sergeant Anthony Melchiorre, Juvenile Aide Division, Preventive Patrol Unit, Philadelphia Police Department; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thomas F. Paine, Planning Section Manager, City of Colorado Springs Police Department; Colorado Springs, Colorado Sergeant Steve Patrick, Aurora Police Department, G.I.U.; Aurora, Colorado Edward J. Pleines, (retired) Gang Crime Section, Chicago Police Department; Chicago, Illinois Sue Rahr, King County Police Department; Seattle, Washington Deputy Mark Rosario, Bernadillo County Sheriff's Department; Albuquerque, New Mexico Deputy Adam Simonson, Bernadillo County Sheriff's Department; Albuquerque, New Mexico Sergeant Steve Spinard, Denver Police Department; Denver Colorado Lieutenant Ralph Torres, San Jose Police Department; San Jose, California Earl Wathen, Under Sheriff, Sedgewick County Sheriff Department; Wichita, Kansas Sergeant E.W. Williams, Commander, Street Gang Unit, Jackson Police Department; Jackson, Mississippi _______________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Program Mission and Background Purpose of the Manuals Problem Statement Discussion of Terms and Issues Approach to the Problem Overview of the Police Manual Summary CHAPTER 2: ASSESSMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND RESOURCES TO DEAL WITH IT Character and Scope of Youth Gang Crime Data on Youth Gang Crime to be Collected Sources of Information Gang Information Management Assessment of Community Resources Summary CHAPTER 3: STEPS TO TAKE ESPECIALLY IN AN EMERGING GANG PROBLEM CONTEXT Assessment Agency and Community Mobilization Police Department Organizational Development Planning A Course of Action Summary CHAPTER 4: SUPPRESSION--METHODS OF WORK Targeting Collaboration with Patrol Action After a Gang-Motivated Incident Followup Victim and Witness Protection Strike Force/Sweeps Preventive Patrol Intelligence/Investigative Files Summary CHAPTER 5: OTHER STRATEGIES AND METHODS TO CONTROL AND PREVENT YOUTH GANG CRIME Community Relations Working with Grassroots Organizations Social Intervention Opportunity Provision Media Relationships Summary CHAPTER 6: STAFF SELECTION AND TRAINING Selection Training Summary CHAPTER 7: EVALUATION Process Measures Outcome Measures Monitoring and Use of an Independent Advisory Group Summary BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX A: LIST OF PROGRAM REPORTS APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY AND DISCUSSION OF TERMS _______________________________ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Justice Department, entered into a cooperative agreement with the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, to conduct the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program. Technical Assistance manuals were created as part of a four-stage research and development process to deal with the gang problem in those cities and contexts where it was emerging as well as where it was chronic. The police manuals address issues of social intervention and prevention as well as suppression. An assessment of the scope and seriousness of the problem must be systematically developed. Key definitions of the terms gang, gang member, and gang incident must be determined. Data management requires emphasis on processing, verification, mechanization, analysis, dissemination, and coordination of official data collected. Data and analysis should be shared with other criminal justice agencies. Gang data and findings should also be shared with community-based agencies and the public under due legal and appropriate confidentiality limits. If a gang problem is present, law enforcement should take a leadership role in mobilizing the community to take action. The efforts of the police department can be organized in various ways, depending on scope and seriousness of the problem and available department resources: specialized gang unit, gang officers, directed patrol, and special training for patrol officers. More complex, specialized, and decentralized approaches are required in large chronic gang problem cities or jurisdictions. When a gang problem is present, the police must plan a course of action in a collaboration with other community groups and agencies. Suppression, within a framework of community policing, is the primary method that should be utilized. Particular areas, gangs, types of gang crime, and gang members should be targeted. Gang unit officers or specialists should work as part of a team with directed patrol officers, who should be responsible for the day-to-day delivery of anti-gang services. Certain procedures must be developed to prevent gang retaliation and protect witnesses after an incident has occurred. Collaboration with other justice system officials is essential, especially prosecution and probation. Strike forces and sweeps must be carefully planned with advance notice to key agency and community leaders and with appropriate procedures to avoid harassing innocent residents. Preventive patrols and surveillance activity should also be conducted in collaboration with community groups and agencies. Such patrols are a good way to collect intelligence data and anticipate future gang problems. Skills in communication and the development of positive relationships with gang youth are necessary. No single approach is sufficient to deal with the gang problem. Community organizing and networking are important. The police can assist local agencies and community groups with aggregate data about the scope and seriousness of the problem in particular locations and assist in the organizing of citizen patrols, graffiti removal, and witness protection projects. The police should participate in various social intervention and prevention activities such as instructing youth groups about the dangers of gangs and how to deal with gang recruitment and intimidation. The police can assist with job development for gang youths. Most important, the police can assist in the education of the media about the problem and what can be done about it through public information and understanding. Law enforcement officers who are capable of both protecting the community and socializing gang youth or youth at high risk of becoming gang members should be selected to carry out antigang crime tasks. Gang officer teams should include females as well as minority officers. Extension and ongoing training of gang officers is required to carry out their complex and demanding duties of gang control and prevention. Monitoring and evaluation of police antigang programs are also necessary, preferably with the help of outside experts and citizen leaders as well as university- based and independent researchers. ------------------------------- CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION o Program Mission and Background o Purpose of the Manuals o Problem Statement o Discussion of Terms and Issues o Approach to the Problem o Overview of the Police Manual o Summary _______________________________ Program Mission and Background Criminal youth gang activity represents a serious threat to the safety and security of local citizens and impedes positive youth development. In recent years, higher levels of youth gang violence and gang member-related drug trafficking have been reported in an increasing number of neighborhoods, high schools, public housing projects, correctional institutions, and other social contexts throughout the country. Police in small towns have begun to identify "gangs" and are requesting assistance in how to deal with them. In response, the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Justice Department, entered into a cooperative agreement with the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, in October 1987 to conduct the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program. This program was initiated as a four-stage Research and Development process: Assessment, Prototype/Model Development, Technical Assistance, and Testing. Three of the four stages have been completed. Stage 1 included a comprehensive review of the research and program literature on youth gangs, a survey of programs in 45 cities, selected site visits, conferences, and special studies. During Stage 2, gang suppression and intervention models were produced for police, prosecutors, judges, probation, corrections, parole, schools, employment, community-based youth agencies, and grassroots organizations. Additionally, separate manuals for comprehensive planning and for community mobilization were developed. Stage 3 involved the creation of 12 technical assistance manuals that provide guidelines to implement the policies and procedures presented in the models. The ten agency manuals specify both organizational and community perspectives for dealing with the youth gang problem. The other two manuals outline specific procedures and processes of planning a comprehensive community approach to youth gang suppression and intervention. (See Appendix A for a list of documents.) The program models and technical assistance manuals were based on the findings of the initial project assessment stage as well as extensive consultations with policymakers, administrators, and practitioners at local and national levels. Law enforcement, particularly frontline gang specialists, were important from the start of the program in identifying the problem. Two regional conferences were held with policymakers, administrators, and practitioners from 16 cities who contributed to the development of the final version of the manuals. Purpose of the Manuals The purpose of the technical assistance manuals is to present detailed steps for the control and reduction of youth gang crime, especially gang- motivated violence. The manuals seek to provide governmental authorities, criminal justice organizations, social agencies, and community groups with strategies that encourage gang-prone and gang-involved youth to terminate criminal activity and participate in legitimate social, academic, and employment pursuits. Broad preventive policies that deal with larger social issues such as poverty and racism, housing, education, jobs, and health care are addressed only on a limited basis in the manuals. Key issues of family breakdown, violence in the media, and the proliferation of sophisticated weapons need to be directly addressed as they contribute to the youth gang problem. They are presented here mainly as contextual conditions that special organizational policies and procedures and community mobilization must deal with and change, if not directly then indirectly. Local administrators and policymakers are the primary audience, but the manuals should also be useful to other officials and personnel concerned with the problem, including agency supervisors, frontline workers, and community volunteers. The manuals are not intended to serve in the place of more general models and manuals dealing with delinquent or troublesome youth in the criminal justice and human service fields; they are intended as a supplement to them. Even so, the manuals should be of value in addressing youth crime more generally. This is because the youth gang problem can be viewed as part of a larger set of crime and delinquency and youth socialization problems. Problem Statement During the 1980's and early 1990's, more criminally oriented and better organized gangs or cliques have become prevalent in many urban and smaller communities. More young people from diverse backgrounds and settings are joining gangs to meet social and economic needs not satisfied through existing institutions, e.g., family, school, and employment.The youth gang has become an alternative, mainly antisocial, institution for an increasing number of youth. Why youth gangs have developed and become more criminal and complex organizations is not clear. The type and severity of youth gang problems may be largely a response to two conditions, poverty or limited access to social opportunities; and social disorganization, i.e., the lack of integration and stability of social institutions including family, school, and employment in a local community. Certain factors exacerbate these two social conditions to produce varying gang subcultures and systems. They include: o large and rapid population movement of low- income minorities into a community; o intergenerational gang traditions; o defects of social policy and coordination of service delivery at local and national levels; o institutional racism; o insecurities of certain working and middle class populations "threatened" by newcomers; o the growth of criminal opportunities; and o possibly, influence of the media. Examples are the following: Violent youth gang subcultures often develop when gang-affiliated African-American and Hispanic youth move from central cities to smaller cities and suburban areas without adequate social, family, economic, and educational supports. Violent gang subcultures may also develop when new waves of poor immigrants from Mexico, Central America, the Pacific Islands, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Korea, the Philippines, and other Asian countries arrive in urban communities. The newcomer groups are often met with hatred and resentment, sometimes manifested in physical attacks. Gangs may form and become rapidly entrenched, first as defensive, and then as offensive groups. Furthermore, in ghetto, inner-city African- American and Hispanic communities, a limited criminal opportunity system often develops. Gangs in these communities may change from status- oriented, conflict groups to highly predatory, criminal-gain groups. Over time, sophisticated instrumental rather than traditional or status- oriented youth gangs may develop, with special interest in drug trafficking and other economic criminal activity. In some communities across the country, particularly in the western States but increasingly elsewhere, the influx of low-income and working-class Pacific-Islander and Asian groups--e.g., Tongan, Filipino, Hong Kong, Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian, or Cambodian--has resulted in other varieties of youth gang problems. Second- generation youths, those who were born in this country or who arrived as preteens, may seek protection, prestige, and income through gang membership. Some of these gangs adopt African- American or Hispanic gang patterns; others become closely connected to traditional ethnic-based, adult criminal organizations. Criminal activities can include home invasions, business extortion, robbery, rape, intimidation, and a range of racket activities. These newcomer youth gangs, and the Asian communities upon which they prey, are difficult for local law enforcement, schools, and community organizations to penetrate or influence because of cultural, communication, and trust problems. Some blue-collar or middle class communities are characterized by growing economic, social, and cultural pressures as well as by increasing family or personal disorganization. Some of these formerly stable, predominately white communities have become centers for youth groups with a "nothing to lose attitude." Youth gangs or their equivalent such as Satanic, Stoner, punk rocker, hate, Neo-Nazi, or racist Skinhead groups may participate in a wide range of loosely organized criminal acts, characterized by perverse and negative behavior, including vandalism, drug use, homosexual assaults, and even homicides. Additionally, in certain stable, lower middle class communities, whether African-American, Latino, Pacific Islander, Asian, white, or Native American, the gang problem may assume a more organized and usually less violent character. Youth may become relatively more involved in extortion, car theft, burglary, robbery, sophisticated drug trafficking, and various lucrative quasi-racket activities which are not necessarily conducted in the "home communities."Legitimate business and criminal interests may be relatively well integrated. Furthermore, specialization of criminal youth gang patterns by race and ethnicity seemingly exists. Economic, social, and cultural factors may, in fact, be the cause. Thus, some African-American youth gang or clique members may be heavily engaged in street-level crack-cocaine trafficking; Mexican-American youth gang members may be relatively more involved in violent turf-based activity, and Asian gang members may be more mobile and closely related to adult crime organizations involved in crimes such as extortion, robbery, and international drug trafficking. However, these youth gang subcultures also exist side-by-side, interact, integrate with, or succeed each other over time. In some communities youth gangs are interracial and interethnic. In spite of the many and changing varieties of gang subcultures that can be found, a common denominator among them is that most of these groups are comprised of youth who share somewhat similar values and a keen sense of personal failure and low self-esteem. For many gang youth, violence has become an acceptable way of life, partially sanctioned by the larger society. Violence is seen on nightly newscasts, in the movies, on evening television and Saturday morning cartoons, and encouraged by certain "rap" stars. Violence is projected as a means of resolving authority, low self-esteem, and racial/ethnic problems. Discussion of Terms and Issues (See also Appendix B Glossary) It is important to accurately identify key components of the youth gang problem in order not to exaggerate, deny, or mythologize them. This is necessary in order to develop appropriate policies and procedures to deal with the different or varying street gang problems and subcultures encountered. These components are: 1) the criminal youth gang, 2) the youth gang member, and 3) the gang incident. The central focus of the manuals is control and reduction of gang-motivated violence. We are not primarily interested in ephemeral delinquent groups or in highly organized drug trafficking by groups concerned only with profit, although there are often important connections between these associations and the youth or street gang. However, we are concerned with predatory youth cliques or drug trafficking groups to the extent they participate in, depend on, and influence the development of violent gang activities. Youth gang members engage increasingly in both violent status-related and entrepreneurial or predatory criminal activities. If a youth group engages primarily in criminal entrepreneurial activity and participates periodically in serious violence, it falls within the scope of our concern. Our concern is also with differences between emerging and chronic gang problem communities and the need for prevention and especially early intervention services. 1. Criminal Youth Gang This is a group often comprising both juveniles and young adults in regular interaction with each other who engage in a range of social and antisocial behaviors. Cliques or members engage repetitively or at times spontaneously in violent, predatory, and criminal-gain behaviors. The criminal youth gang may be located within a neighborhood or across neighborhoods and even cities. It may be loosely or well organized with established rules of conduct. The youth gang may have a name, turf, colors, signs, symbols, and distinctive dress. The youth gang often promotes mutual support among members and conflict with competing gangs or established authority. Many of these groups are traditional turf-based gangs. Traditionally, the primary function of the youth gang has been to establish or protect the group's reputation and status within a framework of shared or communal values. This continues to be true for many youth gangs today. Some youth gangs, however, do not display colors and are not primarily concerned with social status, but are more gain-oriented and more rationally organized. 2. The Youth Gang Member While the criminal youth gang includes some youth who conform primarily to conventional norms, many engage in a range of criminal behaviors. Most gang participants are in the age range of 12 to 24 years, although some preadolescents as well as persons into their 50's have been reportedly engaged in gang activities. The most serious and violent gang activity, however, tends to be committed by older adolescents and young adults. Some gang members may join for a period as short as a day, a week, or a month; others are members for years. Some members move from low to high gang status, from less serious to more serious criminal gang behaviors, and vice versa, sometimes in different gangs. Far fewer females than males join youth gangs, although with the increase in number of gangs throughout the country more female members are probably involved in serious youth gang activities than in an earlier era. Available evidence indicates, however, that females usually join gangs later and leave earlier, and are usually involved in less violent or serious criminal behavior than males. About nine times as many males as females are arrested for gang crimes according to several studies. Less than one percent of gang homicide offenders are female. Female members typically are in groups affiliated with male gangs. Sometimes females are integrated directly as members into the gang proper, and are less frequently involved in independent all-female criminal youth gangs. In a few cities, there is some recent evidence that females have assumed leadership roles in certain gang or criminal group activities, such as drug trafficking. Special attention needs to be directed at high-risk female gang members who are likely to be physically and sexually victimized, or who induce or facilitate male gang member assaults against other gangs. Traditional gangs may have different type of members: identifiable leaders, core, regular, associate, soldier, peripheral, wannabe, floater, veteran, or old-head. The presence and definition of these categories of gang members, however, may be quite variable or defined differently in communities across the country. Of special interest, for purposes of control and prevention are two categories of gang youth: 1) the more serious, hardcore, often older gang youths; and 2) the younger, high-risk, often less committed gang youths. Agencies need to carefully identify gangs and gang members. This process should depend on use of multiple criteria such as gang member self- admission, statements by reliable witnesses, verification by a second independent agency source, prior police records, and the youth's regular association with a known gang member. Participation by the youth in certain serious gang-motivated criminal incidents such as drive-by shootings must ordinarily precipitate a gang member identification process for gang suppression and intervention purposes. 3. The Gang Incident A gang incident is the unit for classifying and reporting an event as a gang crime, especially for law enforcement purposes. Reported gang incidents become the basis for determining whether a gang problem exists and assessing its scope, and thereby the nature and extent of the community response to it. The gang homicide is usually the key and most reliable measure of the seriousness of gang crime. However, identification of gang incidents, e.g., homicide, assault, or robbery, is neither a simple nor a standard procedure. Two different procedures or variations of them, are currently employed to determine whether a gang incident has occurred and should be recorded for law enforcement, and, consequently, public policy purposes. o Gang-Motivated In this procedure, according to the Chicago Police Department, a criminal act is defined as a gang incident if it grows out of gang motivation, interest, or specific circumstances that enhance the status or function of the gang. These acts include: intergang violence, gang retaliation, turf protection, intimidation, robbery, recruitment, or other criminal activity that affects the gang's reputation or interests as a whole. One or more members of the gang may be involved as a suspect, witness, offender, or victim in these circumstances. In classifying the incident, focus is on the nature of the specific situation in which the illegal act occurs, such as a drive-by shooting or the yelling of a gang slogan in the course of the crime. Crimes such as burglary, car theft, prostitution, and drug trafficking by a gang member are problematic because it is hard to determine whether the act is gang-motivated. Many criminal acts serve individual member needs unrelated to gang interests. On the other hand, seemingly individual or self-serving crimes by gang or aspiring gang youth may be gang-motivated. For example, a youth may be required or feel compelled to commit a particular property or person crime because of pressures by the gang. o Gang-Related This procedure, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, is based on the characterization of a crime or delinquent act as a gang incident when the suspect, offender, or victim is a gang member, regardless of gang motivation or circumstances. Usually any serious criminal act, especially of a violent, predatory, or drug trafficking nature, in which a gang member is involved, can be classified as a gang incident. For example, the crime of a gang member who steals from a store--even though that act has nothing directly to do with his gang membership -- would be classified as a gang-related incident. (See Appendix B for a discussion of mixed situations and erroneous classification of group delinquency as gang crime.) o Which Definition to Use The argument in favor of using the gang-motivated definition is that it focuses sharply on the circumstances of the incident rather than the identification of the individual as a gang member. It may be more precise and valid than the gang- related definition. It withstands court challenges better. It also avoids excessive labelling or exaggeration of the gang problem. The counter-argument is that the gang-motivated definition minimizes the actual scope of the gang crime problem. It may encourage organizational or community denial of the problem. A key assumption of the proponents of the gang-related definition is that a gang member is likely to engage in a wide range of serious crimes because gang membership predisposes him or her to do so. Evidence for this argument is not substantial, however. Police and prosecutors generally believe that it is desirable to identify gang members and their activities as completely as possible. Police are particularly concerned that the full range of criminal activities of the gang member be available for efficient tracking and investigation purposes. We recommend a procedure that avoids excessive labelling of youth but ensures protection of the community. A gang-incident procedure should be devised that records and distinguishes between gang-motivated and nongang-motivated crime committed by the gang member. All serious criminal incidents by repeat gang offenders should be clearly "flagged" on criminal justice computer systems. An effective computerized information system permits use of either or both procedures to track gang-motivated incidents and gang member crime. 4. Gang Problem Contexts, Chronic and Emerging With the growth and spread of the youth gang problem, a twofold categorization of the problem context has come into use: Chronic and Emerging. Our manuals stress the differences in these contexts as a basis for the development of distinctive strategies, policies, and procedures for gang suppression and intervention. Simply put, a more preventive or early intervention approach may be required in the emerging gang problem context; while a more elaborate and formalized suppression, intervention, and prevention approach may be necessary in the chronic context. o Chronic Gang Problem Context This organizational or community context is characterized by persistent or periodic crises of major gang member violence and sometimes related drug trafficking extending over a five- to ten- year or more period, or even decades. Youth gangs are usually better organized in such communities which are often located in larger or older cities. These contexts are likely to be found in impoverished, ghetto, transitional areas, or ports-of-entry of inner cities, although they are increasingly found in smaller cities and suburban communities. o Emerging Gang Problem Context This organizational or community context is characterized by less well organized and persistent, but at times serious, forms of gang violence and gang member drug trafficking. The gang problem has usually been present and/or recognized for five years or less. To some extent, the development and spread of the problem may be traced to the influence of new settlers or gang crime entrepreneurs--for example, drug traffickers--from chronic problem cities or contexts. Youth gangs in emerging problem areas tend to be fewer in number and most often evolve out of local delinquent, sometimes social groups under deteriorating economic or social situations for minority, newcomer, or socially isolated populations. The distinction between the concepts of chronic and emerging gang problem communities, however, are not sharp. Indicators related to the onset of the problem, its duration, degree of gang organization, severity of gang violence and related gang member drug trafficking, as well as the appropriate response to the problem(s) are not neatly categorized by the terms "chronic" and "emerging". Emerging gang problem communities may develop into chronic; and chronic gang problem communities may go through periods of sharply diminished gang activity before the problem reemerges. Different parts of a community or jurisdiction may be characterized by different stages or degrees of severity of the problem at a given time. 5. Variability of Violent Gang, Drug Trafficking, and Crime Problems It is important to understand that, despite media and law enforcement claims, youth gangs involved in gang violence are not necessarily involved in drug trafficking. A direct and causal relationship between youth gangs and drug trafficking has not yet been demonstrated. Some communities that have high levels of youth gang violence may have relatively low levels of drug trafficking; other communities with high levels of drug trafficking may have low levels of youth gang activity. We observe that over the last several years, Los Angeles and Chicago, with the highest levels of gang homicide in the country and very high levels of drug trafficking, report that less than five percent (5 percent) of gang homicides are associated with drug trafficking. Drug trafficking appears to be related to serious violent street gang behavior only in a limited sense. Drug trafficking, nevertheless, may succeed and may under certain conditions serve either to diminish or increase patterns of youth gang violence. Finally, high levels of general criminality in a community do not necessarily indicate high levels of gang activity. Some cities with the highest levels of youth homicide and drug trafficking may have relatively limited youth gang activity. 6. Prevention The focus of this and the other technical assistance manuals in our Research and Development program is on issues of intervention and suppression in contexts where the gang problem is clearly present. Here, prevention refers mainly to secondary forms of prevention, or early intervention, which reduces the likelihood that the highly gang-prone or the younger gang member will commit or continue to commit gang crimes. This is to be accomplished through effective controls, direct treatment or services, and provision of legitimate opportunities. In our concept, prevention requires change and development both by the individual youth as well as his or her social environment. Most youth from low-income and social problem- ridden communities are not involved in delinquent gang activities. Finally, we note that a simple prevention model that emphasizes exclusive concern with younger youth may be unsuccessful. Such a model does not take into consideration system effects, including the extensive socialization effects of older youth on "wannabe" or younger youth. All key components of the problem need to be systematically addressed. Approach to the Problem The manuals specify five major lines of action or strategies: community mobilization, opportunities provision, suppression, social intervention, and organizational change and development. These strategies must be combined in different ways depending on the problem context, the specific mission of the organization, and the kind of youth targeted for special attention. 1. Community Mobilization Community mobilization is a necessary and primary strategy in socially disorganized communities. Social disorganization, which contributes to the development of criminal youth gangs, may be characterized by the inability of legitimate institutions such as home, school, and employment, to adequately socialize youth. It may also be characterized by limited networking among agencies or the fragmentation of criminal justice or community service delivery systems, within and across communities. Both local and Federal interests must be mobilized for the development of collaborative community and interagency activities directed at the control and reduction of the youth gang problem. In times of limited local community resources, agency consortia efforts are essential. These should include the full and productive use of combined local, State, and Federal resources; application of moral and political pressures; and participation by the local citizenry. (See also General Community Design and Community Mobilization manuals.) 2. Opportunities Provision The provision of additional social opportunities, i.e., the development of a variety of targeted educational, training, and employment programs, is the second most important component over the long term for the reduction and prevention of the youth gang problem, particularly in chronic contexts. The schools need to provide remedial and enriched educational programs for gang-prone and hardcore gang youths. Education, training, and jobs are especially critical for older gang youth still in gangs who are not in school but who are at "positive risk" at a certain point in their social maturation for leaving the gangs, or for decreased participation in criminal gang activity. A key objective of these programs should be developing socially competent youth, whether in or out of school. (See School and Employment manuals.) 3. Social Intervention Youth-serving agencies and grassroots community groups must "reach out" and act as a link between gang youth and the conventional world. Staff or adult volunteers of these organizations must develop meaningful relationships with these youth. Community-based youth agencies should facilitate access to pertinent opportunity systems and exercise social controls that contribute to the socialization of gang youth. Special efforts are also required to coordinate services for these youth. (See Community-Based Youth Agency manual.) 4. Suppression Social control procedures, particularly those of criminal justice, but also of community-based agencies, are essential for community protection and the prevention and reduction of the problem. Youth gang suppression involves not only law enforcement but a variety of other agencies and community groups in the targeting, monitoring, supervision, and if necessary, restraint of gang offenders. It also requires the anticipation, prevention, and limitation of the effects of gang crime in particular situations to protect both youth participants and the community. Arrest, prosecution, imprisonment, and close supervision of gang youth are insufficient, however, unless joined with other community- oriented strategies to achieve long-term impact on the problem. This means that community-based agencies and local groups must accept and collab- orate with criminal justice agencies in patrol, surveillance, and certain information-sharing under conditions that protect both youth and the community. Police, prosecution, and other criminal justice agencies must develop a variety of social intervention, opportunities, prevention, and community involvement programs to supplement their primary goal of suppressing gang crime. (See especially Police, Prosecution, and Probation manuals.) Furthermore, policymakers, administrators, and practitioners in the criminal justice system have a special responsibility to withstand pressures from the public and other units of the justice system to carry out an exclusive strategy of suppression to deal with the youth gang problem. 5. Organizational Change and Development Finally, the above strategies need to be appropriately organized based on the nature and scope of the problem in the community and the mission of the particular organization. Organizational development and change require better use and reallocation of available resources within agencies and neighborhoods. Common definitions, improved communication, resident involvement, and coordination within as well as across agencies and communities are also required. Both community mobilization and organizational development strategies, whether in emerging or chronic gang problem contexts, should be closely interrelated to create efficient and cohesive system arrangements for dealing with the gang problem. Targeting To conserve resources and most effectively deal with the youth gang problem, it is important to target certain communities, organizational contexts, gangs, and gang members or gang-prone youth. Special emphasis on community mobilization is required in both emerging and chronic gang communities. Opportunity provision must also be emphasized for chronic problem communities and contexts. Neighborhoods and organizations, particularly schools, experiencing serious gang problems, should be priority targets for suppression and intervention efforts. The most serious gang problem youths in the most violent gangs in the highest gang crime rate areas should be targeted first. Certain youth gangs or gang-like groups clearly committed to violent and serious criminal activity should receive priority attention. This is to avoid unnecessary labelling and widening the net of gang delinquency and crime through inappropriate criminal justice and community-based agency attention. It is important to concentrate resources on the heart of the present problem. Also, individual youth should be targeted in the following order of priority purposes: o First, leadership and core gang youths--to disrupt gang networks, protect the community, and facilitate the reintegration of these youths through community-based or institutional programming into legitimate pursuits; o Second, high-risk gang-prone youth who are often younger or aspiring gang members who give clear indication of beginning participation in criminal gang activities--to prevent further criminal gang involvement through early intervention, preferably community-based services; and o Third, regular and peripheral gang members--to generally address their needs for control and intervention services. Finally, a caution! The policies, procedures, and steps recommended in the manuals should be viewed as promising but as yet not systematically researched through field testing. Overview of the Police Manual The police manual proposes guidelines for the implementation of a model devised to control and intervene into the youth gang problem. Data from a survey of law enforcement agencies in 45 city or county jurisdictions in the United States including large and small departments was used to develop the manual. The manual recommends mainly procedures of suppression, to some extent intervention, and to a more limited extent prevention, within a community mobilization framework. The manual is limited to the youth segment--the major component--of the general street gang problem. It is intended for law enforcement policymakers and administrators, as well as supervisors, gang specialists, and patrol officers assigned to districts experiencing youth gang crime in both emerging and chronic problem contexts. Administrators, supervisors, and officers from other units, especially homicide, narcotics, robbery, youth division, and community relations, should also find it of value. The manual attempts to provide a systematic approach to dealing with youth gang crime. The approach we recommend can be readily integrated into more general concepts of problem-oriented or community policing. In many aspects, the patrol division is the key element in the implementation of an antigang program. The following topics are covered: I. Assessment of the Problem and Resources to Deal with It II. Steps to Take, Especially in an Emerging Gang Problem Context III. Suppression--Methods of Work IV. Other Strategies and Methods to Control and Prevent Youth Gang Crime V. Staff Selection and Training VI. Evaluation Summary The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Justice Department, entered into a cooperative agreement with the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, to conduct the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program. The scope and seriousness of the problem were analyzed from both an organizational and community perspective. Models or prototypes were developed. Technical Assistance manuals were created that focussed on the imple- mentation of policies and procedures in emerging and chronic gang problem communities and contexts. The manuals address the gang problem in terms of critical characteristics of the youth gang, its members and the way the problem is defined. Focus is on controlling, reducing, and preventing gang- motivated violent and serious criminal youth gang activity. The mission of suppression and intervention is specified as requiring five key strategies: community mobilization, opportunities provision, social intervention, suppression, and organizational change and development. Key targets of an antigang program should be gang leaders and core members as well as high-risk gang-prone youth. The police manual deals primarily with issues of suppression, but also with social intervention and prevention. ------------------------------- CHAPTER 2: ASSESSMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND RESOURCES TO DEAL WITH IT o Character and Scope of Youth Gang Crime o Data on Youth Gang Crime to be Collected o Sources of Information o Gang Information Management o Assessment of Community Resources o Summary Not all street and/or youth gangs are criminal in nature. Assessment of the problem is therefore necessary for all units of the police department, especially patrol as well as specialized gang units, to identify distinctive aspects of gang crime requiring targeted law enforcement attention and appropriately deployed resources. Two types of assessment activities are needed: o First, an assessment that collects and analyzes meaningful data on gang crimes from various official and non-official sources. o Second, an assessment of community resources that focuses on what law enforcement can do collaboratively with a variety of community groups and agencies to address the gang crime problem. Guidelines and procedures for both are covered in the section below. Character and Scope of Youth Gang Crime Certain information is required to determine whether a gang problem exists and, if it does, its scope and character. The problem is expected to vary depending on a range of factors as suggested in the Introduction above. An important first step is to understand the nature of the problem in operational terms in the specific community; in particular, to develop valid and appropriate definitions of the terms gang, gang member, and gang incident, distinguishing gang-motivated and gang-related crime. Specific elements of the youth gang problem must be defined in such a way as to neither exaggerate, deny, nor mythologize them. The following discussion is an attempt to provide an understanding of the problem as a basis for the development of appropriate suppression and intervention policies and procedures. The definition of terms--gang, gang member, and gang incident--is increasingly determined by State law for purposes of law enforcement, prosecution, and sentencing. It is important, therefore, that law enforcement communicate its understanding of the local gang problem to State legislators and make recommendations about the specific definitions and categories of gang crime because they will bind the department in the exercise of its authority and duties. The gang assessment data collected, or to be collected, will influence or be influenced by such legislative mandates. Data on Youth Gang Crime to be Collected There are a variety of ways of collecting gang crime statistics. The important consideration is to establish a system that is meaningful, feasible, and maintained over a long period of time. Consistency of procedure in and classifying gang crime is essential for determining: o trends or changes in gang crime in different neighborhoods and jurisdictions over time o the effectiveness of enforcement patterns based on such consistent procedures and reliable data. 1. Certain types of gang-motivated data are critically important to collect: o homicide o drive-by shootings o aggravated assault/battery o drug trafficking o robbery o extortion o simple assault/battery o assault/battery on police officer o victim/witness intimidation o vandalism. Some of these crimes may be very difficult to determine as gang motivated--e.g., extortion, or drug possession--particularly when these activities involve personal gain. Also important for crime analysis, tracking, crime targeting and investigation purposes may be collection of part 1 or index crime committed by gang members, even when nongang-motivated. 2. A variety of other types of gang-motivated crime should also be collected and classified to the extent that reliable data are present and resources permit, for example: o burglary, o auto theft, o theft (excluding car theft), o rape, o subway and train robberies, o arson, o bias-related crimes. Furthermore, these types of gang-motivated crimes may be cross-classified by such purposes as: o retaliation o status enhancement/reputation o recruitment o initiation rites o income production o use by adult gang members of juveniles to carry out riskier aspects of gang crime to avoid arrest and prosecution. 3. Official data should also be broken down according to: o whether an injury results, and if so, seriousness of injury o whether medical attention is required; and if so whether the victim was hospitalized. 4. Modus operandi, bearing on the patterns or styles of behavior of the gang, particularly of individuals and cliques in the gang who specialize in particular types of crime, such as: o shooting o types of weapons used o drug trafficking o robbery o burglary o extortion o intimidation. 5. Gang participant identification. Basic demographic and organizational data on gang crime offenders and victims should be collected, such as: o age o race/ethnicity o sex o location of incident o name of gang or gang segment/branch. 6. Gang symbols and other characteristics that are distinctive to each gang should be collected such as: o turf boundaries o gang allies and enemies o gang member nicknames o gang graffiti, colors, clothing, (especially sweater and jacket styles), hair styles, tattoos, jewelry characteristics, and hand signs; and o documents indicating rituals, history, traditions, and rules of organization. 7. Specific gang organizational characteristics, including size, leadership, clique, structure (i.e., various organizational units by age and location), female affiliates, and confederations within and across the jurisdictions. 8. Neighborhood crime patterns that may be related to or distinct from youth gang behaviors. The interrelationship of adult criminal organization and youth gangs in high gang crime areas is important to determine. The presence of public housing and its physical layout are important in the concentration and pattern of gang crime. The highest rates of gang crime, however, are not necessarily associated with public housing. 9. Certain schools in the area, whether elementary or high school, may for a variety of reasons be centers of youth gang organization and delinquent activity. Such schools may require special attention from youth division, gang crime, as well as patrol units. 10. Outside jurisdictional influences. Data on the relationship of gangs outside the jurisdiction to local gangs and delinquent groups should be obtained. Especially important is the influence of leaders of local gangs who may be presently imprisoned, yet who are calling the shots with respect to various types of street gang-related activity. Friction between certain prison gangs may impact local community gang activity. 11. Finally, it is important to collect only as much data and perform only those analyses that are relevant to the nature and level of gang crime in the particular community. Too much data may impede data processing and analyses as well as too little. Most important is efficient dissemination of these data and findings to other units of the police department and other criminal justice agencies, for appropriate criminal justice activity. Sources of Information There are many sources of information on gangs, gang members, and gang incidents. The reliability and validity of information, however, should be established for effective planning and operational purposes. These sources include: o Internal departmental units: especially patrol, youth, and narcotics. o Other law enforcement agencies: e.g., local or regional; Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) units; State departments of police and criminal justice planning and information; and police departments in other cities. o Other criminal justice agencies: e.g., state's attorney's office, probation, parole, Department of Corrections, and the court. o Local schools: principals, security personnel, police liaison officers, and parent-teacher organizations, and students, themselves. o Departments of local government: e.g., human services, commission on human relations, and the housing authority. o Selected community organizations and service agencies: grassroots organizations, churches, youth centers, employment services, and local political offices in high gang crime areas likely to have information about gangs and their members. o Neighborhood sources: residents and shopkeepers, especially gang and former gang members. Active gang members themselves are an extremely good source of current information about gang activities and gang members, and the police must have sufficient communication and relationship skills to obtain such data. o Adult and juvenile correctional facilities: particularly for gang problems that originate in these facilities and may spill over to the streets. o Local detention and temporary holding facilities: contain gang members, for a relatively short period of time, who may be a good source of information about recent or pending gang crime incidents. Police officers, including those in gang patrol and specialized units, should be proactive in developing information on gangs from official and non-official sources. All officers should share responsibility for the development of gang information for feeding it to the gang unit or gang specialists. Gang Information Management A systematic approach to the collection, analysis, and use of official data regarding youth gang crime should be developed. Its function should be processing, verifying, mechanizing, analyzing, disseminating, and coordinating official gang data collected. An assessment of youth gang crimes is only as good as the quality of the information collected. "An existing crime analysis unit may be an ideal organizational location to assume gang information management responsibilities," since the unit already has most of the necessary components (e.g., crime analyst and a tactical data collection, analysis, dissemination, and feedback process)." If another arrangement is preferable, e.g., a special gang data collection and analysis unit, "crime analysis can still be invaluable in complementing the information processing efforts of the gang unit." In any case, at the initial point of the development of a gang information system, a bona fide expert (with substantive police expertise and technical computer management skills) should be employed or consulted to establish the system and to train gang and other departmental officers to use it. Reporting information on the specifics of gang crime: This requires that: o all officers should be trained to obtain information and evidence on youth gang crime on a special gang form; o the first officer on the scene--usually the patrol officer--should take notice of evidence or other indicators of a possible gang crime and plan to be of assistance to the specialist gang investigator later; and o a special item and check-off box should be included on the general arrest form to flag the incident as gang-motivated or gang-related and the suspect or victim as a gang member(s). All forms with boxes checked as gang-motivated or gang- related should automatically be routed to the gang specialist for assessment and possible further investigation. The information collected should be especially useful for: o targeting high-profile gangs, gang leadership, and hardcore members; o focusing law enforcement resources on community areas with the highest concentration(s) of gang crime; o selecting schools with actual or clearly potential gang problems; o providing pertinent evidence to the prosecutor; o sharing information that will be useful to other law enforcement agencies, especially probation; and o developing appropriate planning and budgeting schemes with respect to the problem. Coordination of information on youth gang crime: All gang reports should come to the attention of the gang specialist, crime analyst, or intelligence office for verification of the incident as a gang crime. This also requires a departmental policy that the designated gang officer or unit receive all reports of gang cases that are assigned to other units for investigation, such as robbery, assault, homicide, and narcotics. This is very important since a particular incident unrelated to gang activity may lead to, or be a consequence of, gang-motivated crimes--e.g., a robbery or insult in a bar may be followed by retribution and intimidation of victims and witnesses. Thus, the gang unit should have some responsibility for appropriate contact with such cases. Verification of gang data: All information needs to be verified by the gang officer as to its accuracy, relevance to gang motivation, and need for further investigation. The process of information collection also needs to be reviewed periodically to ensure that data remains current and relevant for controlling gangs. Unnecessary data items should be deleted and new ones added to serve the unit's objectives in light of changes in gang culture. Purging of data: A procedure should be established so that "old" data--i.e., once the youth or young adult has left the "gang lifestyle"--his name and information about him, should be purged form the computer gang file and other special gang records. Periodic purging is recommended, e.g., every year based on the lack of information about a further arrest of the gang member three years from the last police arrest. Regular purging is economical, attests to the reliability of the system, and avoids unnecessary labeling, particularly of juveniles. Development of an automated system: This is the most efficient method of processing data on youth gang crime. Data entered into an automated system needs to be verified regularly for input errors. Information should be input into the data system as soon as the incident has been reported. The automated system should be programmed to generate the following types of reports from its data base: o a listing of individual members of each gang o a profile of the characteristics of individual members, especially hardcore and leaders o sociodemographic breakdown of gangs and gang members by age, gender, race/ethnicity and neighborhood o types of gang crime incidents by gang and location of these activities o a current listing of gang members on bail, probation, parole (along with special conditions attached to their status), and those with pending warrants. Analysis of gang data: The analysis of gang data has to be an ongoing process. Each week or two there needs to be an analysis of the gang situation based on official reported incidents and intelligence information. Regular and crisis analysis entails constantly reviewing reports of what gangs are doing in particular areas, checking for graffiti and graffiti crossouts, and sharing information with gang investigation and other pertinent officials. The analyses generated should provide information concerning: o Neighborhoods of most frequent gang activity including data on: -- actual and potential retaliatory gang violence, -- gang recruitment activity -- gang drug trafficking activity, -- crime patterns of active individual gangs, and -- gang hardcore and leadership to be targeted for suppression. o Fringe and juvenile members to be targeted for or referred to opportunity provision and social intervention programs. Aggregate and crisis analysis. Aggregate analysis constitutes an evaluation not only of trends in gang crime but the effectiveness of antigang police efforts. Informal decisions can then be made to address the particular problem. Furthermore, the outbreak of serious gang violence should trigger a crisis analysis. This should lead to joint meetings between the police and allied agencies, information-sharing, and the planning of collective efforts to deal with the crisis situation at hand. Police resources can then be targeted at particular aspects of the present problem, e.g., particular gang hangouts, suspected shooters, potential victim gang or gang member locations. Data dissemination. A clear and explicit set of procedures must be developed for law enforcement, criminal justice, and public information use of gang data. All specific gang intelligence should generally be reserved for law enforcement purposes by the police department, other law enforcement and criminal justice units, and for entry into regional and national data bases. The public should have access to aggregate data and analyses particularly useful for understanding the problem, planning, and targeting various resources to high gang crime areas. A specific process should be established for distribution of specific data for internal departmental use by patrol as well as planning and program development units. Computer monitors have been established in local district units of various police departments, all of whose officers can access gang data files. Computer software is also available permitting law enforcement and criminal justice departments to access gang data files (and even pictures of gang members) in other cities. (See G.R.E.A.T. system of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.) Data dissemination will shortly be possible based on a national gang information data base developed by Federal law enforcement agencies. Police gang data systems are also useful means for sharing dispositional data on court processing, parole, and probation conditions, and correctional data on gang members. Assessment of Community Resources While the police should be concerned primarily with suppression of criminal gang activity, investigation of specific gang cases, and intelligence-gathering, it is also important for them to assess the availability and need for community resources to reduce the gang problem. Gang specialists and patrol officers should pinpoint areas where large numbers of youth hang out, especially in neighborhoods with high youth gang activity. Some police officers may live in or near high gang crime neighborhoods. They should know, or will already have established relationships with residents and youth generally including gang youth. They should understand youth interests, needs, and problems with regard to schooling, training, jobs, recreation, and other local issues of health, housing, etc. The police on the beat should know what schools and agencies are providing adequate education and school services. They should be able to identify organizations that have reached out to youth vulnerable to become gang members. The police department should therefore be aware of the need for social resources for gang youth and of service gaps. Such information is particularly important for the department's problem-solving and advocacy role in community efforts to deal with the youth gang problem. The police, especially representatives of the youth division and gang unit, should advocate for credible programs to socially control and meet the legitimate needs of youth. They should not only alert community leaders to the emergence of a gang problem and provide local community groups and agencies with data relevant to controlling gang crime and protecting citizens, but in the process obtain data in turn useful for police suppression and gang prevention purposes. Summary Both assessment of the gang problem and resources available to deal with it in a specific community are needed. The definition of terms, gang, gang member, and gang incident must be determined. Focus should be on collection of gang-motivated incident data. Gang symbols and organizational patterns as well as characteristics of gang members should be carefully collected and made available to other units of the police department and the criminal justice system. There are many sources of gang information; however, their reliability and validity must be checked. A systematic approach to gang data management is required, with emphasis on processing, verifying, mechanizing, analyzing, disseminating, and coordinating official gang data collected. A procedure should be established for periodically purging gang data. Certain ways of organizing data should be established. Analyses should be generated to meet general and specific purposes of the police department, other criminal justice agencies, as well as for community agency and public information, and policy and program guidance. The police department also has a responsibility to develop knowledge about the adequacy of community social resources available to prevent the gang problem and advocate for credible programs. ------------------------------- CHAPTER 3: STEPS TO TAKE ESPECIALLY IN AN EMERGING GANG PROBLEM CONTEXT Special attention needs to be directed at neighborhoods, cities, and jurisdictions where the gang problem MAY BE emerging. The steps to be taken include: o Assessment o Agency and Community Mobilization o Police Department Organizational Development o Planning a Course of Action o Summary Assessment Where youth gang crime appears to be emerging, the police should assess whether or not the problem actually exists; and, if it does, the scope and nature of its occurrence. Gangs generally emerge under particular social conditions and are identifiable through common symbols and organizational and delinquency/crime patterns. It is particularly important for the police to develop an adequate, i.e., valid and reliable, assessment of the gang problem, where such problem has not been present before or where the problem is only beginning to manifest itself in relatively nonserious form. With the great increase in media publicity about the spread of the problem, the police must be sensitive to citizen overreaction. This may now be more likely than denial of the problem. Social conditions conducive to the development of gang crime problems within the city or neighborhood are usually characterized by: o residents with low to moderate income o departure of middle class residents, leadership, and other institutions from a community o an influx of new racial/ethnic groups -- migrants, immigrants o high and increasing dropout and truancy rates among youth; o a depressed labor, or inaccessible labor, market for semiskilled and unskilled youth; o large numbers of young people, especially males, hanging out or congregating at several locations due to a lack of social, educational, and recreational resources o a growing homeless youth population o change in adult criminal structure and competition, especially for control of drug markets. Caution: Although gangs often develop when the above social conditions exist, these conditions may not be sufficient to produce youth gangs and associated crime. o Graffiti. On homes, garages, schools, business buildings, and other structures. Gang graffiti may represent a gang name or the nickname of an individual gang member, denote turf boundaries, resemble graffiti of gangs in chronic problem neighborhoods or cities, indicate disrespect for rival gang symbols, and send a message of impending conflict and violence. o Colors. A gang may be identified by distinctive colors or color combinations of clothing, hats or caps, shoe laces, etc. o Clothing. Such as sweaters, gloves, hats, and pants may also be worn in a particular manner to indicate gang affiliation. o Tattoos usually illustrate gang symbols, gang name, or the moniker of the individual gang member, sometimes displayed on a less visible part of the youth's anatomy. o Jewelry. One earring worn by males on either the right or left ear may indicate gang affiliation. o Signing. Hand and arm signals and special body expressions may be used to identify membership in a specific gang or confederation, or may signify a challenge to a rival gang. o Identification. With a statewide or national confederation of gangs, e.g., Crips or Bloods originating in Los Angeles, Folks or People originating in Chicago, and the Nuestra Familia of California. Caution: Such symbols usually, but do not always, indicate that a gang or gang pattern has developed. They may be part of an ephemeral copy- cat phenomenon. Furthermore, a serious gang problem may exist with little expression of gang symbols, colors, or signs. This is especially so when the youth gang is turning to economic crime. Gang criminal behavior must be in some evidence before an emerging or incipient gang problem can be identified. Such behavior will include gang recruitment, presence of graffiti, threats of conflict activity between two groups involving use of weapons, repetitive assaults by a group defending its turf, or aggression against another. On the one hand, citizen groups and the media may exaggerate the significance of nondelinquent street corner groups or ephemeral delinquent groups, claiming that they are indeed gangs and a most serious threat to community safety. The public may be fearful because of a single episode. On the other hand, indicators of a gang problem may be present but for political or economic reasons, community leaders, including the mayor and even police administrators, may deny for a period of time the existence of a gang problem. Agency and Community Mobilization Should police assessment or investigation result in a lack of evidence to verify an emerging youth gang problem, it may be necessary then not only to provide data to support this conclusion, but also to take the time to alleviate the fears and anxieties of community groups. o The chief of police should communicate his find- ings to local officials, citizen groups, and concerned agencies through public meetings, the news media, and special consultation with city executives, community agencies, and citizen groups o Cooperation of the media should be sought by providing accurate documentation concerning the existence or absence of a youth gang problem. o The media should be encouraged to accurately report the issue. They should take special care to neither sensationalize minor and isolated incidents nor inaccurately identify incidents as gang-related. o Special orientation sessions for publishers, editors, and reporters should be held in order to explain the complex nature of the problem and how, for example, certain types of reporting may add to the status and cohesion of certain gags and even precipitate retaliation against them by opposing gangs. The responsibility of the media, informing and educating the public about the problem and even suggesting appropriate ways of attacking the problem, should be emphasized by police administrators. If the assessment indicates there is an emerging gang problem, the first step should be to mobilize available police department and other governmental resources to deal with it. o The top law enforcement official should explicitly and officially recognize the problem on behalf of the department. o He should facilitate the development of special departmental policies to deal with youth gang crime. o Once policies and related procedures are devel- oped, he should see that they are properly and fully implemented by all relevant police personnel. o He should also urge the city or county executive as well as heads of any nonprofit agencies and community organizations to openly and fully recognize the problem, support the police, and mobilize their planning and program resources to confront it. The second step is Community Mobilization. Law enforcement officials need to take a role in mobilizing the community to address the problem. Police should be aware that not only "hard data" on gang crime but citizen awareness and valid perceptions of gang crime in particular communities must be developed. The control and prevention of youth gang crime requires a comprehensive approach that necessitates community citizen involvement and interagency coordination. It requires a multistrategy approach encompassing activities and services related to the five strategies described in Chapter 1: suppression, opportunities provision, social intervention, the development of appropriate organizational mechanisms, as well as community mobilization. Specifically, o The police should encourage and develop the means for collaboration by various elements of the police department and community groups to control the problem on the streets. o The police should be alert specifically to communitywide, especially media, events that are likely to precipitate youth gang activity, and solicit appropriate preventive community action. o The police should provide advice, training, and back-up to local groups and community-based agencies about the problem in culturally and community-relevant terms, to the extent resources permit. o The police should systematically make available data on the scope and severity of the problem in particular areas of the city for use in local planning to deal with the problem. The police assist in general community planning to deal with the problem. o Police administration should encourage, assist in the development, and even the conduct or leadership of conferences, interagency councils, and communitywide task forces to address the problem. Police Department Organizational Development Certain arrangements are required in both emerging and chronic gang problem communities or contexts. In the emerging gang problem city or jurisdiction, there may be an insufficient need for, or a lack of, resources available to develop a full-fledged, separate gang unit. On the other hand, resources may be relatively more available in emerging than in chronic gang problem communities. Several options are available under these various circumstances: o If a special gang unit is organized, it should be placed in that division of the department where it can most effectively communicate with and be deployed to assist street or patrol units with the problem. o One or more specialist gang officers should be established with responsibilities for dealing with gang cases in established units, such as youth, narcotics, violence, robbery, or community rela- tions and especially in patrol. o Gang unit officers, specialist gang officers, or directed patrol officers in frequent contact with gang youth, who not only have a desire to work gang areas but are able to communicate and show empathy toward gang members while at the same time being firm, should be selected. These officers should have the ability to establish rapport with gang members and maintain a liaison relationship with other police units (e.g., homicide, narcotics, as well as the other units more directly concerned with the problem). o Provide special gang training to patrol officers in the specific gang crime neighborhoods, and target repeat juvenile gang offenders in these areas. This arrangement would require use of a specialized gang intelligence or crime analysis officer or coordinator to provide appropriate intelligence for targeting certain youth. Appropriate guidance, consultation, and supervision should be sought from law enforcement personnel experienced or expert in gang work either from within or from other police departments. Visits to other law enforcement units with experience in dealing with the problem should be encouraged. Chronic Gang Problem Community Finally, we note that in a community with a long- term gang problem, a specialized gang unit or an equivalent structure may have already been established. In these units, usually in large cities, containing several hundred gang officers, further specialization and coordination may be required to deal with the increased complexity, spread, and seriousness of the gang problem. Special attention to issues of suborganization, communication, and training may be necessary. Thus, o A gang-drug section may be necessary, in which case close coordination with the narcotics unit is established. o Teams containing Hispanic, African-American, Asian, and white officers with special knowledge, language skills, and cultural sensitivities may be required. o Specialist community organization, school, investigation, data analyst, prosecution, or other criminal justice liaison (Federal, State, local), as well as tactical officers may be necessary to deal with different aspects of the gang problem and agency responses to it in a coordinated manner. o Decentralized or local area units may be required under command of the central office administrative unit. o A complex data system is necessary. It should be connected to central office administration, decen- tralized gang units, other units of the police department, and the prosecutor's office. o A departmental TV communications system may be established at each precinct which can be systematically used by the gang unit for communication with and training of local patrol and other specialized departmental units. o Caution should be exercised in the separation of police department gang crime jurisdiction into juvenile and adult gang crime units. This often results in a failure to adequately recognize the full scope and seriousness of the gang problem. Such units should be integrated or highly coordinated utilizing basically similar policies and procedures within the legal limits. o Finally, most important, whether in chronic or emerging problem contexts, teamwork relationships should be developed with patrol officers. Not only should information be shared on a two-way basis, but a team arrangement should be developed in which patrol takes primary responsibility for delivering the community-oriented antigang service at the street level. Planning A Course of Action In addition to actions already suggested, the police should plan a special course of action that targets different types of gang youth appropriately and focuses on contacts with parents, schools, prosecutors, and other criminal justice officials and community representatives. (See Agency and Community Mobilization section above and Appendix B: Glossary.) Gang-awareness training as to the scope and nature of, and what needs to be done about it, should accompany specific law enforcement operations planning. Parents should especially be involved within the context of school, youth agency, and community- police meetings. o Leaders and hardcore members who commit serious and repeat gang crimes should be targeted for vigorous arrest and prosecution. Those ready to change their ways should also be targeted for special social intervention and opportunities provision (See Suppression and Opportunities Provision section that follows). o Younger gang and fringe members need to be targeted for appropriate social intervention and opportunity provision referrals (See Opportunities Provision section that follows). o Parents of juvenile gang members should be specifically targeted and informed of their children's gang associations and their responsibilities for supervising their children. o Police officers should work closely with schools to provide adequate protection against gang activity and instruction to staff on how to deal with gang problems. o The prosecutor should be approached to provide special attention to all serious gang cases. The possibility of developing a "vertical prosecution" approach by assigning a special prosecutor to gang cases should be considered. o Discussions on information-sharing and appropri- ate joint operational procedures should be initi- ated with a variety of criminal justice agencies. o Plans for information exchange with nonjustice agencies and community groups should also be carefully developed with attention to issues of confidentiality, community protection, and due process rights of gang member suspects. Summary Special attention needs to be directed at neighborhoods and jurisdictions where the gang problem may be emerging. Although gangs often develop when certain social conditions exists, this is not inevitable. Indicators of an actual or impending gang problem are usually present in combination, e.g., special graffiti, colors, clothing, tatoos, jewelry, signing, as well as gang-motivated crime. Police assessment of the presence or absence of a gang problem should be communicated to the public. If a problem is present or clearly impending, law enforcement can take a leadership role in mobilizing the community. Different kinds of police organizational arrangements may be appropriate, depending on local conditions: a use of special gang unit, specialists, and special gang training for patrol officers. More complex, specialized, and decentralized approaches are required in larger, chronic gang problem communities. Whatever organizational approach is selected, the police must plan a course of action that specifically targets the problem in collab- oration with community groups and agencies. ------------------------------- CHAPTER 4: SUPPRESSION--METHODS OF WORK o Targeting o Collaboration with Patrol o Action After a Gang-Motivated Incident o Followup o Victim and Witness Protection o Strike Force/Sweeps o Preventive Patrol o Intelligence/Investigative Files o Summary Suppression within a framework of community policing is the primary method that should be utilized by law enforcement to control and prevent youth gang crime. It involves apprehension and restraint of gang offenders and also the anticipation, prevention, and limitation of the effects of gang crime to protect the community. The police should function mainly at the front end of the juvenile and criminal justice system in close collaboration with other community agencies and groups as well as justice system components. The following sets of procedures are required to implement the suppression strategy. Targeting Law enforcement personnel need to make the most efficient use of resources by applying them where they will have the greatest effect. This can be accomplished by targeting serious gang offenders; paying special attention to high gang crime communities and particular housing projects and schools; and prioritizing the types of locations, gangs, gang members, and seriousness of crimes requiring attention. o Gang leadership and hardcore members should receive significant police attention. Special supervisory and law enforcement procedures should be exercised that lead, when appropriate, to their removal from the community. These procedures should include: -- Frequent scanning of arrest sheets or preferably tracking of these individuals on a mechanized data system for possible felony or misdemeanor charges -- Strictly enforcing minor charges against gang leaders or hardcore gang members, such as traffic violations -- Networking with probation, parole, and correctional institutions to check for warrants, writs, and violations of supervision. The police should be informed, as soon as possible, about the release of core gang members from jail and prison and the conditions attached to their probation or parole. Prison officials should be informed by police about key gang leaders who are sentenced to their particular institutions. o Communities with the highest proportion of gang crimes should be targeted. -- Extra efforts should be expended on coordination of patrol and gang tactical and investigation functions in these areas -- Special strike forces should be organized in those areas where youth gang crime is most violent (for details, see below). o Public housing units with high rates of gang violence, drug trafficking, and resident intimi- dation should be targeted. (Public housing is not always the highest gang crime area(s) in the city.) -- Special attention should be paid to improved physical security arrangements -- Special procedures identifying tenants and prohibiting access to strangers in the projects should be developed -- Special and regular meetings with resident management groups, tenant organizations, or local community organizations should be arranged to improve communication based on cultural sensitivities, and to develop and implement procedures for resident protection -- Tenants should be urged to provide information about gang crime and testify against gang offenders under special protective conditions. o Drug trafficking and gang recruiting on school grounds and peripheral areas should be targeted. -- Particular attention should be paid to selected junior and senior high schools at dismissal time, during the early fall, and after spring break -- i.e., during school transition periods. Ordinarily, these are the likeliest times for gang recruitment and violence. -- Gang officers should regularly visit these schools to gather information about gang activity. Prioritize suppression efforts to focus on the most serious gang incidents. o Priority attention throughout the community should be paid to the following types of gang- related crime incidents and the suspects or offenders who commit them: -- homicide -- aggravated assault/battery -- drug trafficking -- robbery -- extortion -- witness intimidation. Collaboration with Patrol Patrol officers are, or should be, the key elements in the day-to-day battle to assist the community to deal with the gang problem. Patrol officers have primary responsibility for the maintenance of law and order in the community as well as an important role in the socialization of youth at risk of becoming gang members. Most police resources are located in the patrol division, and it is important therefore that patrol not ignore or delegate the gang problem to a specialized unit in the department. An interdependent relation must be established between the gang specialist and the patrol officer. A major arrangement can be directed patrol, i.e., freeing up patrol officers to make gang crime service calls or carry out preventive gang activity. The patrol officer can be freed several hours a day to work on specific gang-related tasks that the officer has identified or formulated. He/she can be assigned to specific antigang activities by the supervisor, based on coordination with crime analysis or gang intelligence. The patrol officer may operate in uniform or in civilian clothes. Most important, he/she should act in tandem with the gang specialist or gang unit officer. Both are responsible for complementing and facilitating each other's job in the solution of gang crime problems. As team members, the following activities are required: o gang specialist attendance at all roll calls o regular informational exchange and planning meetings between the gang specialist and the patrol officer assigned or volunteering to perform specific gang-related tasks o both types of officers working should leave a "paper trail" with each other, of information about gangs and how to handle them. Field note on the gang situation should be developed by the patrol officer and gang intelligence and gang suppression techniques provided by the gang unit officer. The specific kinds of information and activity that the directed patrol officer can develop or engage in are: o provision of information about targeted groups or gang members involved in drug and intergang conflict activities o assistance in special gang actions, e.g., serving warrants to gang members; o participation with a variety of personnel from other public departments, as well as police, in joint code enforcement that have implications for gang activity, e.g., investigating housing violations in slum communities, boarding up abandoned buildings so they don't become gang hangouts, enforcement of zoning and housing violations, police sweeps of high gang crime streets or locations; o assisting the local school to organize gang patrols that involve parents as well as school staff; o acting as DARE or SANE counselors to teach antigang classes; o participation in athletic and social programs in the community in which police can be a role model as well as educate and prevent and control gang activity o assisting local agencies and community groups to organize citizen antigang mobilization conferences o communications exchange with community-based youth agencies, grassroots organizations, gang youth members, as well as other members of the police department in the maintenance of law and order and preventing gang crime. Action After a Gang-Motivated Incident Most gang incidents will require a response somewhat different than similar types of crimes that are not linked to the gang. The following steps are recommended for processing gang- motivated crimes: o The first officer on the scene should note whether the incident is gang-motivated based on criteria indicated above (see Assessment). The officer should provide assistance to victims, and gather names and information about the suspects and the circumstances of the incident. He should also be alert to the possibility that multiple victims and suspects, no longer present, may have been involved. He should be especially alert to the possibility of retaliation by members of the victim's gang, and communicate such information as soon as possible to his immediate supervisor. o The first officer on the scene, directly or with the aid of his supervisor, should have access to as complete a data system as quickly as possible to determine whether a suspect or victim is on probation or parole or has another case pending. Such information will aid in determination of disposition. o The report of a serious incident should also be recorded, as soon as possible, by supervisory personnel for the appropriate units in the depart- ment as well as reported or even faxed to other criminal justice agencies. The gang officer may have to quickly followup to prevent further escalation of violence in cases of intergang conflict. After gang unit or specialist review, incidents requiring followup investigation should be referred to the most appropriate division. If the case is referred to a nongang unit or officer, all pertinent information should be shared between the gang officer and the investigator of the other unit assigned to the case. o Investigation. The investigation of a gang crime may necessitate additional inquiry into certain connected aspects of criminal activity. For example, gang crimes often contain elements of criminal conspiracy, intimidation of victims and witnesses, and connection to organized crime activities, especially drug trafficking. Therefore, the gang officer assigned to investigate the case should: -- Gather all evidence relative to gang motivation, including physical evidence and that gained through interrogation of witnesses--for example, display of gang symbols, such as gang signing, used during the commission of the alleged offense. Determination of whether the victim was a gang member and the history of such crimes committed by the offender and his gang need to be documented. -- Probe into the specific motivation of victims or witnesses as well as suspects who are gang members. It is vital to gather data about past and potential gang crime activity of witnesses and suspects through use of a variety of informants, particularly those who are most reliable. -- Notify social agency or areawide special antigang crisis teams to become involved in dealing with the consequences of the gang crime; also allow for longer term investigation to prevent future acts of retaliation. -- Prepare regular reports, preferably once per week, to keep probation informed about gang activities that may involve probationers. -- In the case of serious violence or index crime, the gang officer should notify the prosecution on call and assist them with interrogations of the suspect and the conduct of videotaped interviews. Followup The gang officer or directed patrol officer and officers of other units of the department should, as required, followup on the results of the investigation. Appropriate actions include: o Making information about possible retaliation sites and potential gang offenders available on a priority basis to appropriate district patrol officers, probation and parole, for example, through fax, telephone, special notification, or roll call. o Increasing patrols in communities frequented by members of the conflicting gangs. o Directly warning members of the conflicting gangs that they will be under heavy surveillance and will be held strictly accountable for subsequent criminal activity. o Directly counselling gang youths or gang influ- entials to participate in crisis intervention efforts to mediate conflicts. o Working with school security and youth agency crisis teams to exchange information that will serve both to protect gang youths and other members of the community. o Paying special attention to events such as school events, festivals, funerals, and parades that may be the occasion for violent criminal activity. o Being alert to followup or special crisis meetings of gang leaders or influentials that take place, often in public places such as parks, and using these opportunities to observe, interview, and gather intelligence as well as make arrests for drug or weapons possession. o Working closely with probation and parole to obtain search warrants and to "violate" gang youths for gang offenses and expeditions to court resentencing or return to institutions. o Working closely with the prosecutor to determine which cases should be prosecuted, and provide or gather additional information and evidence required for case filing and prosecution. Gang cases should be handled expeditiously and not "pile up" before submission to prevention. o Marking out procedures for referral of cases for Federal prosecutors. o Preparing to recommend higher bail for serious gang offenders and to give appropriate court testimony, if called as a witness or as a qualified expert, regarding a case in which he may not have been specifically involved. o Communicating with prison or correctional offi- cials when a gang leader or gang youth is placed in the institution. To the extent possible, police officers should make periodic visits to institutions to become aware of programs and changes that may becoming in gang youths when they return to the community--both for the better or worse. o Making regular and frequent contacts with law enforcement in adjoining cities or jurisdictions with gang problems. Nearly military units or job corps camps with gang problems or gang-related drug trafficking should be contacted regularly. Victim and Witness Protection In collaboration with the prosecutor's office, the gang unit or directed patrol officer should take responsibility for protecting gang and nongang member victims and witnesses. Such protection should be offered prior to, during, and subsequent to court trials and sentencing of gang suspects and offenders. o Close coordination of police and prosecution activities is necessary. Prosecution should be alerted to the possibility of witness intimidation and retaliation. o Police officers should provide protection to victims and witnesses at home, on the way to and from court, and in the court when intimidation is likely. o Witnesses should be encouraged to testify. The assistance of community support groups, e.g., parents against gangs or concerned parent groups, should be sought. o Continuous 24-hour-a-day communication with victims and witnesses should be available during the crisis or at-risk period. o Nothing should be offered in the way of relocation or support to witnesses that cannot be delivered by police or prosecution, often because resources are not available. The most feasible arrangements may be to assist the witness to move out of the area and stay with a friend or relative until the case is closed. o Coordination should be arranged with parole and probation officers so that potential gang member intimidators be detained for possible violation of court or parole orders. Strike Force/Sweeps If criminal gang activity, particularly gang violence and/or drug trafficking, reaches crisis proportions, special police strike force arrangements and sweep procedures may be required in a particular area. However, such efforts, if not targeted and inadequately planned, may not be cost effective. They can serve to label and provide gang prestige to youths who are not yet gang members, thereby leading to an increase in gang crime. They may simply displace gang crime to another area. Further, they may antagonize community residents. Sweep activities should be carefully planned with attention to use of profes- sionally trained officers. o A task force should be organized, comprising gang specialists, patrol, tactical, community relations and other officers from the local area as well as from the larger jurisdiction to target specific streets, certain public housing units, and particular gangs, and individual gang members, as necessary. o The strike force should have the capacity for rapid deployment for quickly disrupting ongoing criminal activity, and to ensure law and order in a particular situation. o The strike force should contain highly disciplined officers sensitive to local community culture and dynamics. o "Ripple effects" or overloading of other compo- nents of the criminal justice system may result from special task force or sweep activity. Therefore, special coordinative arrangements must be established with prosecution, probation, parole, and the court of the police department's jurisdiction as well as the law enforcement agencies outside the jurisdiction. This should provide for exchange of intelligence, quick justice system processing, and around the clock availability, to the extent possible. o Heads of youth agencies and community leaders should be alerted beforehand to the impending sweep--although not necessarily the specific date, time, and place. o Every effort should be made to avoid arrest of innocent bystanders and nongang members, and maintain the support of legitimate community elements. o Constitutional due process safeguards should be maintained at all times. o Special data should be collected to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of particular "sweeps" for planning for future operations. Evaluators should be alert to displacement effects, e.g., gang drug sales move to a nearby neighborhood. o Sweep procedures, particularly in public housing, should pay special attention to the protection of life and property and avoid harassing innocent and nontargeted tenants or visitors, and especially avoiding charges of racism. -- Special coordination arrangements with local housing authorities, as well as local tenant organizations, are required. -- Surveillance procedures should be directed only at targeted locations and at active and clearly designated likely offenders. -- Checks of residents, visitors, and suspects in the target area(s) should be conducted in a courteous and appropriate manner. -- Sweep procedures should maintain a strong element of surprise but be limited in time and scope. Preventive Patrol Police patrols should be routinely targeted to prevent the occurrence of criminal youth gang activity at times, places, and events in which gang youth are likely to gather. This can include school dismissal periods in neighborhoods with high gang activity; school environs used for gang recruitment and drug dealing; and special occasions such as block parties, parades, and festivals. o Local police or directed patrol officers with knowledge of gangs and gang members should be employed in preventive activity. o School officials, community organizations, youth agencies, and sponsors of special programs should be informed of police presence and activity and requested to cooperate in terms of information- sharing and establishing physical arrangements and procedures that maximize security. o Specially trained and skilled patrol officers should also be assigned to assist local organizations to more effectively prevent, monitor, and control events--usually a range of insufficiently supervised social and athletic activities--leading to gang activity. o Specific youth gangs and youth should be routinely targeted for surveillance, friendly visitation, exchange of information about gang activities and potential gang crises, and advice by officers about specific consequences for violation of the law. Routine patrols of gang hangouts can be useful in gathering current intelligence on the gang problem. Positive and effective relationships with gang youth can result in early feedback of information by them about impending gang fights. Intelligence/Investigative Files The data collected on individual gangs and especially gang members becomes the basis for the development of gang intelligence files (See Assessment above). Such intelligence is used to monitor the activities of youth gangs and their members. As indicated, files should be kept on all known gang members, from the leadership down. Information entered into intelligence files must be verified, especially data gathered from community sources. Such information should be shared on a reciprocal and systematic basis with law enforcement agencies from surrounding jurisdictions, probation, correctional institutions, and parole to the extent that the law permits in order to more efficiently track criminal gang activity. Furthermore, o The collection and use of gang information should comply with general departmental policy and laws regarding the development and maintenance of intelligence. o Both formal and informal files on gang youth should be kept only to the extent the law permits. Only reliable and valid information should be kept on file. Such information should not be shared with noncriminal justice agencies, e.g., gang lists of juveniles should not be shared with schools, unless required by law--under specific conditions. o As indicated in Chapter 2, the names and records of youth gang offenders and suspects should be purged three years after the individual's last contact, if there has been no further contact, with the justice system. o Intelligence files should be kept secure. Use by other units of the police department and other criminal justice agencies should be carefully monitored. Ordinarily, noncriminal justice agencies should not have access to the files except with permission of top administration of the department and the juvenile court, if juveniles are involved; and for reasonable cause, e.g., research purposes. Summary Suppression within a framework of community policing is the primary method that should be utilized by law enforcement to control and prevent youth gang crime. A variety of procedures should be utilized, including targeting of certain areas, types of crime, particular gangs and gang members. The gang specialist or gang unit officer must work closely with patrol or the directed patrol officer who should be responsible for the day-to-day delivery of antigang services. Certain reporting and investigation procedures are necessary, particularly with regard to collection of evidence and notification of the gang incident to other relevant criminal justice, and with crisis intervention teams to deal with the possibility of retaliatory gang violence. Followup of gang incidents also involves increased patrol; contacts with and warnings to gang youth; and working closely with probation, prosecution and community-based agency crisis teams. Special attentions, in collaboration with the prosecutor's office, is required to protect witnesses so they can safely testify in court. Strike force and sweep activities must be carefully planned, otherwise such efforts may be wasted and, in fact, can lead to an increase in the problem. Sweep procedures should include notification of key heads of local agencies and community leaders. Special care is required in public housing sweeps to avoid harassing innocent residents and subjecting the police to charges of racism. Preventive patrols and surveillance should be carefully carried out to prevent criminal youth gang activity, especially in collaboration with local community groups, school officials, and youth agencies. Positive and effective communication facilitates preventive patrol planning and also assists in the development of valid and productive gang intelligence. ------------------------------- CHAPTER 5: OTHER STRATEGIES AND METHODS TO CONTROL AND PREVENT YOUTH GANG CRIME Community mobilization, social intervention, and opportunity provision are essential and interrelated strategies that should be used by law enforcement agencies to combat youth gang crime. These strategies and methods are to be used in a variety of situations. They may be especially effective when utilized with younger and nonhardcore members. They may also be useful with older members who are ready or can be persuaded to leave gang life. A priority objective for law enforcement agencies is to network with agencies around individual youth problems and involve community organizations in a more comprehensive effort to reduce the gang problem. These strategies and methods may be specifically categorized and implemented as follows: o Community Relations o Working with Grassroots Organizations o Social Intervention o Opportunity Provision o Media Relationships o Summary Community Relations Development of informal as well as formal, positive, interdependent relations between the police and residents, organizations, and agencies in neighborhoods with high or increasing rates of gang crime is critical to the community mobilization strategy. It assumes a complex perspective of the causes of, and efforts required to deal with, the problem. It emphasizes that no single approach or agency is sufficient and that a collaborative effort is required to control gang crime. o Patrol, neighborhood relations, and gang officers should develop an understanding of the specific socioeconomic structure and culture of the neigh- borhood or jurisdiction, and the patterns of influence of key organizations and agencies that affect or are affected by youth gangs in the particular area. o Police officers should develop a positive working relationships with a range of representatives of these organizations as well as the neighborhood influentials who are concerned with, knowledgeable of, and who can do something about gang problems. o This approach to community or problem-oriented policing may be simpler in emerging problem cities and small "stable" communities where police are more likely to have established a variety of informal relationships. Such existing contacts then need to be a basis for sharing of information and development of useful approaches in dealing with the evolving gang situation. Particular reciprocal and collaborative relations have to be worked out with different community groups and agencies. o In chronic problem neighborhoods in larger cities, designated police officers should systematically develop relations with key organizations, agencies, and shopkeepers, to understand their interests in the development of various programs to cope with the gang problem. o In chronic gang problem contexts, more formal arrangements should be made to use directed patrols, neighborhood relations officers, or gang officers to carry out specified tasks focused on control and reduction of gang problems. Reciprocal responsibilities of business, real estate, block groups, youth agencies, schools, and the police may have to be worked out in a series of meetings. o In both emerging and chronic gang contexts, gang officers and other police working on the problem should become active members of local neighborhood task forces or programs concerned with the problem. o A key element and contribution of the police to community mobilization should be providing information--using aggregate data--to all interested organizations and communities about the scope and seriousness of the local gang problem. o Police need to provide background knowledge on gangs; offer training, suggestions, and principles for preventing and controlling the problem; and collaborate with local organizations and groups, to the extent possible, in developing and implementing neighborhoodwide antigang programs agreed to. o Finally, policy or administrative personnel in the gang or other appropriate unit should be systematically involved in all citywide or jurisdictionwide antigang crime efforts. This may entail involvement with a variety of criminal justice, community agency, and civic groups, including public, private, nonprofit, sectarian, planning, and coordinating associations. Working with Grassroots Organizations Special attention needs to be directed at the interests and concerns of grassroots groups, especially local community organizations, churches, and businesses. Such groups may be best informed about the nature of the impact of the gang problem on local citizens, and best able to interpret and provide support for various police functions. o A variety of information programs on the gang problem should be directed at these groups, e.g., through public meetings, radio and tv spot announcements, distribution of literature, and contacts by police area or neighborhood representatives, or directed patrol. o Police officers, particularly gang officers, should respond rapidly to community concerns about the gang problem when complaints and information are received on specific youth gang crime or threats of such crimes. o The police officer should encourage and assist in the development of a variety of special projects that can be implemented by grassroots groups, such as graffiti removal, witness protection, parent patrols--especially in relation to protection of children on the way to and from school, and in monitoring and controlling gang activity at neighborhood parties or special events. o Appropriate provision of communications equip- ment, arm bands, helmets, and instructions on ways to collaborate with police in surveillance and gang suppression activities should be provided. o Every effort should be made to support and stimulate local citizen interest, encourage local leadership, and provide support in efforts to prevent and curtail youth gang crime. o Police should expect and demand that local groups do an honest and credible job in providing services to gang-prone youth and gang members and not exploit the problem for personal or organizational interests. Failure of local agencies and groups to collaborate should be brought to the attention of local task forces or councils. Social Intervention A major objective of the social intervention strategy by police should be to facilitate the social development of youth at high risk of becoming gang members to not join and to assist committed gang youth to leave the gang. Appropriate police policy, supervision, and additional funding will be required to achieve this objective. Social intervention can be implemented through a variety of methods, particularly directed patrol efforts: 1. Referral and Counseling The directed patrol officer or gang officer implementing this strategy should: o become familiar and establish regular contacts with a variety of agency recreational resources and social services useful in the social development of gang youth. A referral resource and services guide or manual should be available in local district offices; o develop some skill in brief counseling, sufficient to advise and refer youth and their families to appropriate community programs; o refer older gang youth to training and job resource centers and agencies; o collaborate with citizen groups, youth agencies and schools in special patrols and programs to pick up and identify gang-prone truant youth who probably need special counseling, remedial education, and family social services; and o directly counsel wannabees and fringe gang youth and their parents during followup field contacts and home visits about the dangers and consequences of gang membership. 2. Gang Prevention Curricula Specialist gang officers should assist in the development and teaching of gang prevention curricula to youth at risk of gang membership, particularly in high gang crime contexts. o Police departments should, in collaboration mainly with the schools, but also youth agencies and churches, implement DARE (Drug Awareness Resistance Education), SANE (Substance Abuse Narcotics Education), or similar gang and drug prevention programs, particularly for youth in third to fifth grade. Special emphasis should be on those aspects of education that enable children at a vulnerable age to avoid gang involvement. o Opportunities for informal contacts between directed patrol officers or gang specialists and high school students should also be provided in a school or youth agency setting for discussion of issues related to prevention and control of the youth gang problem ( as well as to gather intelligence on local gang problems). 3. Outreach Programs Youth division, directed patrol, and gang officers should reach out to assist agencies and schools to meet gang youth social education, supervised recreational, and athletic interests and needs. o The police should invite high-risk gang-prone and actual gang members as well as local agency personnel and local citizens to ride in police patrol cars. o Sharing of information and specific collaborative procedures should be established by police and youth agencies in their work on the street with gang youth. Special attention is required to develop common definitions of gang problems and appropriate guidelines for dealing with various situations, e.g., gang mediation meetings. o Directed patrol and gang crime officers should periodically visit youth agencies and schools and participate informally in contact and discussion with staff as well as youth likely to be gang members. o As appropriate and if resources permit, patrol, youth, and gang officers should be encouraged to participate in and/or volunteer their efforts as leaders in social, camping, recreational, and athletic programs sponsored by youth agencies, schools, and recreation departments as well as by the police department itself. Opportunity Provision The provision of education, training, and employment opportunities to gang youth is not the primary responsibility of law enforcement. However, law enforcement, especially directed patrol and those officers involved in community policing, can make a significant contribution to the implementation of this strategy. o As suggested above, police officers should be role models and instructors in teaching youth to avoid or leave gangs. o Referrals of gang-prone or gang member youth should be made, as appropriate, to a variety of education, training, and employment programs: -- Gang members under 16 years of age may also be referred to a community youth agency for part-time employment. During the summer, an office of the municipal government may have a summer youth employment program to which gang members can be referred. -- Officers can refer gang members 16 years and older to special preemployment programs and directly to employers who are hiring. Local patrol officers are in a unique position to know which businesses are looking for help. They know, or should know, where gang turf boundaries are and can assist employers and gang youth to facilitate suitable employment situations. o If resources permit, police officers can assist directly in job development programs, particularly in soliciting jobs from local businesses and industry that can be targeted to gang youth. This can be done on a systematic as well as informal basis. o The police should advocate for the development of remedial education and employment opportunities for gang youth in the course of local community task force meetings. o To the extent resources permit, police officers can, as part of an assignment at a local high school, teach or assist teachers to communicate antigang and criminal justice system curriculum content, particularly in social studies courses. Media Relationships Relationship with the media can be viewed essentially as a communications and educational as well as a community relations process. This process should be designed both to educate reporters and the general public as to the nature and scope of the gang problem and what should appropriately be done about it. For this purpose, o The police should be fully accessible to reporters to provide general information about gangs and gang members and gang situations on an aggregate data basis. o Ordinarily, requests for such information should be handled by the public information officer (P.I.O.) of the Police Department or the administrator of the Gang Unit. Policies will, of course, vary with particular departments and types of requests. o Such information provided to the media should be complete and accurate. Names of juveniles, gang names and specific locations, as well as gang modus operandi, however, should be omitted, as suggested above in Chapter 2, to: -- avoid providing status to gangs and gang members; -- prevent the dissemination of information aiding in retaliation; -- limit the possibility of copycat phenomena in other, often nongang problem, communities; and -- assist and persuade the media, particularly film and recording, to avoid double bind messages either unintentionally or intentionally providing status or even stimulus to criminal activity. o Whenever possible, the police should help the media provide the public with a complex under- standing of the basic causes and precipitating factors of gang phenomena. The police should also stress that a community approach is essential, i.e., a variety of criminal justice, community- based agencies, and grassroots groups must collaborate in dealing with various aspects of the problem. o Special instructional meetings on the gang problem should be held periodically with publishers, TV, or radio program directors, editors, and reporters. o Use should be made of public announcements, hotlines, and various reports that facilitate public access to the police department on all matters of policy and programs that affect the gang problem. Summary A variety of other strategies, especially community mobilization, should be used in conjunction with suppression to deal with the youth gang problem. No single approach is sufficient and a coordinated effort by various community groups, community-based and criminal justice agencies, in addition to law enforcement, is required. A key element and contribution of the police to community mobilization should be the provision of data about the scope and seriousness of the local gang problem. The police can also assist grassroots organizations in the implementation of a variety of programs, such as graffiti removal, citizen patrols, and witness protection. A major objection of a police social intervention strategy should be referral and counseling of gang-prone or committed gang youth to social and recreational services. Police have been involved extensively in the development and teaching of gang prevention curricula. Directed patrol and gang crime officers should periodically visit youth agencies and schools to engage in informal discussions with gang-prone and committed gang youth. The police can advocate for and directly participate in special educational and job development programs directed at gang youth. Finally, the police have a special responsibility to assist the media to educate the public as to the nature of the gang problem and what feasibly can be done about it. ------------------------------- CHAPTER 6: STAFF SELECTION AND TRAINING o Selection o Training o Summary Selection Law enforcement officers who are selected to participate in directed patrol, as gang specialists, or in gang units should be interested both in the socialization and social development of youth as well as community protection and suppression. Gang officers need to be bright and flexible with substantial ability to deal with the complexities of gang and community life. They should be able to communicate effectively and establish positive and effective relationships with a great variety of local persons, including gang youth. Both male and female officers should be recruited and selected to deliver antigang services. In addition, the racial/ethnic/cultural composition of the group of officers addressing the gang problem should represent that of the target neighborhood or jurisdiction, to the extent possible. Police candidates for gang work need to: o respect youth o exercise firm and fair control and law enforcement o facilitate open relaxed communication with youth about gangs, gang crime, and crime generally in the community. "You have to know how to talk to kids" o relate to various key influential neighborhood people who are in contact with gang youth o pay special attention to the distinctive local cultures o talk to people in their own language. With newcomer groups, this means either learning the language or being able to use a variety of brokers to facilitate such communication. o understand and support victims of gang crime; and o expect an honest and credible approach from local agencies and community groups dealing with the problem. Training Law enforcement officers assigned to communities with high rates of gang crime need special training related to the complexities of the problem. The training should include information about gangs, gang members, and gang crime incidents. It should also contain strategies and techniques to best deal with the problem. The specific content and amount of training should differ for officers of the various divisions in different kinds of gang problem communities. Orientation and updated information sessions, short- and long-term training should be planned. Various outside experts should be brought in to assist with training. A range of materials should be used, from displays of gang weapons, slides of gang graffiti, and video of interviews with gang members, to Klanwatch literature. Generally, training should provide information on the following topics: o gang behavior and gang structure charac- teristics, e.g., organization, leadership, symbols, and codes o information about cultural, class, and racial/ ethnic factors that affect the gang problem, distinctive community responses to it, and related sensitivity training o how to recognize and determine whether an incident is gang-motivated or gang-related o how the first officer on the scene is to handle a gang-motivated incident o recording reliable gang, gang member, and gang- incident information; o areas of police investigation unique to gang crime and the special types of evidence to be gathered to prove gang motivation; o roles and areas of cooperation and coordination for each division and unit within the department designed to promote a common effort to fight gang crime; o how to deal with different types of gang crises; o establishing appropriate contacts and com- munications with gang members, families, and community members, with special concern for cultural factors; o how to legally apply suppression tactics including: -- the conditions under which probable case is justified, -- regular incident patrol and followup, -- strike force procedures, and -- preventing gang recruitment. o dealing with different types of gang crime; o preparation of law enforcement officers as expert witnesses; o working and cooperating with community-based programs: -- schools, -- grassroots organizations, -- community civic and social organizations and local businesses and employers, -- use of brief counseling techniques, -- referrals to youth agency programs, and -- development and use of city, metropolitanwide task forces to aid in dealing with the gang problem. o responsibilities in training grassroots leaders and community-based agencies as well as other criminal and juvenile justice personnel, especially prosecutors and judges, regarding gang crime. Teaching requires describing key components of the problem, explaining its causes, and what to do about them. This is very important in emerging gang problem cities; and o issues in exchange of information with other agencies, gang tracking, and purging gang information. Summary Law enforcement officers selected to be gang crime officers should be interested in the socialization of youth as well as community protection. A range of officers should be recruited and selected, including female officers and members of community groups. Extensive and ongoing training is required, utilizing a variety of experts and different sources of materials to enable police officer to carry other their complex and demanding duties. ------------------------------- CHAPTER 7: EVALUATION o Process Measures o Outcome Measures o Monitoring and Use of an Independent Advisory Group o Summary Evaluation should test the effectiveness of gang control and prevention procedures and strategies. It should include process and outcome measures of effectiveness. Emphasis should be on testing the value of certain suppression and community mobilization procedures in relation to outcome measures of the control and reduction of gang crime. Process Measures 1. Suppression o targeting leaders and core members, o strike force arrangements, o use of sweeps, o strict enforcement of minor violations o use of specialized gang officers. 2. Community Mobilization o number of antigang workshops sponsored and participated in by community residents o cooperation and collaboration with criminal justice agencies o cooperation and collaboration with schools and community agencies o cooperation and collaboration with grassroots organizations. 3. Organizational Development The intelligence process should be evaluated in terms of: o accuracy of information, o quality of informants, o utility of the mechanized data system, o purging of irrelevant and outdated materials, o security of data, and o quality of data analysis as it relates to controlling gang crime. 4. Staff Development o performance appraisal of personnel, and o quality of training programs. Outcome Measures Rates for the following gang-motivated and gang- related crimes need to be compared over time, controlling for such variables as type of gang youth, age, gender, and area: o homicide, o aggravated battery, o simple battery, o aggravated assault, o simple assault, o drug-related crime, o robbery, o extortion, o the number of gangs, o the number of members per gang, and o witness intimidation. A full evaluation should be conducted by an outside university or independent researcher every two or three years to the extent resources are available. Techniques and processes that do not prove successful in the control and reduction of gang crime should be reviewed and replaced with new strategies. Monitoring and Use of an Independent Advisory Group The various steps and procedures of the antigang program should be monitored by an internal police department unit. Ideally, an external or independent group of criminal justice and law enforcement professional and city leaders should also be invited to participate in periodic reviews of the key data collection, analysis, planning, and service delivery and policies and procedures used by the antigang unit and program. Summary The efforts of the police department to deal with the gang problem should be carefully monitored, preferably by an outside group. Evaluation of the process used by gang units and officers to achieve objectives should be conducted. Especially important is the conduct of outside evaluations to determine the effectiveness of the gang program in controlling or reducing gang crime. ------------------------------- BIBLIOGRAPHY Bobrowski, Lawrence J. 1988. Collecting, Organizing and Reporting Street Crime. Chicago: Chicago Police Department Special Functions Group. California Office of Criminal Justice Planning. 1990. Community Mobilization: How to Survive in the '90s. Sacramento, California: Office of Criminal Justice Planning, State of California. Goldstein, Henry. 1990. Problem-Oriented Policing. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University. Jackson, Robert K. and Wesley D. McBride. 1985. Understanding Street Gangs. Costa Mesa, California: Custom Publishing Company. Maxson, Cheryl L. and Malcolm W. Klein. 1990. "Street Gang Violence: Twice as Great, or Half as Great?" in C. Ronald Huff, Ed., Gangs in America. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications. Spergel, Irving A. and G. Daniel Curry. 1992. Survey of Youth Gang Problems and Programs in 45 Cities and 6 Sites. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (in Press). ------------------------------- APPENDIX A List of Program Reports from the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program The following is a list of draft reports developed by the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program, University of Chicago, in cooperation with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of Justice. Stage One Assessment of this research and development program identifies promising community and organizational responses to the youth gang problem. Stage Two Proto- type/Model Development focuses on developing twelve promising prototype models to address the problem. These models specify policies and practices for the design and mobilization of efforts at the community and criminal justice levels. Stage Three Technical Assistance manuals provide guidelines for implementing the models. All reports are available in draft form from the National Youth Gang Information Center (NYGIC), 4301 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 730, Arlington, VA 22203. NYGIC is OJJDP's central dissemination point for all gang-related information. NYGIC provides the above reports in hardcopy and on high-density computer disks in WordPerfect 5.1. Call NYGIC toll-free at 800-446-GANG or 703-522- 4007 locally for assistance. ASSESSMENT: STAGE 1 Full Reports Available: 1. Literature Review: Youth Gangs: Problem and Response, 1991, 357 pages. This comprehensive literature review covers what has been written on the youth gang issue from a research and program standpoint. 2. Survey of Youth Gang Problems and Programs in 45 Cities and 6 Sites, 1990, 297 pages. This survey reports aggregate gang or community level data on youth gang problems and programs in 45 cities and 6 institutional sites for the year 1987. 3. Community and Institutional Responses to the Youth Gang Problem, 1990, 184 pages. This report consists of case studies of how five communities and one correctional institution addressed youth gang problems in promising ways. 4. Report of the Law Enforcement Youth Gang Sym- posium, 1988, 152 pages. This report describes the gang intervention activities of fourteen police departments located across the United States, particularly with respect to their attempts to reduce the gang problem. 5. Law Enforcement Youth Gang Definitional Conference--Transcript, 1990, 138 pages. This is a proceeding of a conference at which gang experts from law enforcement and academia from Los Angeles city and county, Chicago and New York City were brought together in an effort to develop a uniform set of definitions (i.e., gang, gang member, gang incident) applicable to street gang phenomena across the country. 6. The Youth Gang Problem: Perceptions of Former Youth Gang Influentials. Transcripts of Two Symposia, 1990, 139 pages. These are the proceedings of two symposia at which former gang influentials--Black and Hispanic--describe why they joined the gang, what activities they were involved in while gang members, what factors caused them to depart from the gang, and what recommendations they had for community, policy and agency changes. 7. Client Evaluation of Youth Gang Services, 1990, 53 pages. This document reports on the perceptions of current and former youth gang members concerning the nature and efficacy of services provided by some of the programs located at our field visit sites. 8. Preventing Involvement in Youth Gang Crime, 1990, 173 pages. This report identifies indicators of Black and Hispanic youth at risk of becoming gang members in inner-city Chicago communities with high gang crime rates. 9. Stage 1: Assessment Executive Summary, 1990, 25 pages. This report summarizes the findings of the Assessment Stage of the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program. MODEL DEVELOPMENT: STAGE 2 Gang Intervention Models recommend policies and procedures for addressing youth gang members 12 to 24 years of age. Strategies of suppression and intervention are described. Issues of prevention, although essential, are not highlighted in these documents. The models emphasize mobilizing community interest and developing distinctive institutional missions within the local juvenile justice system. Gang Intervention Models Available: Document # Title D0001 Executive Summary: Prototype Models, 33 pages. D0002 Community-Based Youth Agency, 24 pages. D0003 Community Mobilization, 20 pages. D0004 Corrections, 19 pages. D0005 General Community Design, 56 pages. D0006 Grassroots Organization, 19 pages. D0007 Judges, 15 pages. D0008 Parole, 14 pages. D0009 Police, 21 pages. D0010 Probation, 16 pages. D0011 Prosecution, 12 pages. D0012 Schools, 19 pages. D0013 Youth Employment, 17 pages. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE MANUALS: STAGE 3 Technical Assistance Manuals provide detailed step-by-step guidelines for implementing the models. Strategies are designed to encourage gang- prone and gang-involved youth to terminate criminal activity and participate in legitimate social, academic, and employment pursuits. It cannot be sure the policies and practices proposed to reduce the youth gang crime problem are effective until they are tested. Gang Manuals Available: Document # Title D0014 Community-Based Youth Agency, 92 pages. D0015 Community Mobilization, 102 pages. D0016 Corrections, 84 pages. D0017 General Community Design, 110 pages. D0018 Grassroots Organization, 92 pages. D0019 Judges, 102 pages. D0020 Parole, 98 pages. D0021 Police, 98 pages. D0022 Probation, 116 pages. D0023 Prosecution, 74 pages. D0024 Schools, 150 pages. D0025 Youth Employment, 120 pages. ------------------------------- Appendix B: GLOSSARY AND DISCUSSION OF TERMS There is much variation in the definition of youth gang or its equivalent terms depending on particular agency, city, or region of the country, race/ethnicity, gang generation, and cultural factors. The terms delinquent group, gang, and criminal organization need to be distinguished for policy and program purposes to the fullest extent possible. 1. Gang. This term generally refers to a group or collective of persons with a common identity whose members interact on a fairly regular basis in cliques or sometimes as a whole group. The activi- ties of the gang may be regarded as legitimate, illegitimate, or criminal in varying combinations. o Street Gang. This term preferred by law enforcement, emphasizes the organized character of a group of persons on the street, often engaged in significant illegitimate or criminal activity. The ages of members of these street gangs vary; some street gangs are more street-based than others. Some authorities report arrests of street gang members in their 30's, 40's, and 50's. o Youth Gang. This term may refer to a youth segment of a street gang, usually between the ages of 12 and 24. Some youth gang members are younger or older. The term youth gang is often used as equivalent to street gang, and is somewhat preferred by community-based agencies. o Traditional Youth Gang. This term refers to a youth gang comprising mainly adolescents, juveniles, and some young adults primarily concerned with issues of status, prestige, and turf protection. The youth gang may have a name, a hangout, codes of conduct, colors, special dress, signs, symbols, etc. Traditional youth gangs often have a leadership structure (implicit or explicit), differ in degree of a gang activities, and may persist over several generations. Traditional youth gangs vary by community as to characteristics of age, gender, race/ethnicity, scope, and nature of delinquent or criminal activities. The traditional youth gang contains many types of subgroups engaged in various delinquent, criminal, and social group activities. o Posse/Crew. The terms posse and crew are sometimes equivalent to street or youth gang. The posse or crew, more often than the traditional youth gang, is characterized by a commitment to criminal gain activity, particularly drug trafficking, rather than to status-based conflict. It may be loosely organized and/or connected to an adult criminal organization. It emphasizes employer-employee relationships and has fewer social status-related or symbolic interests or characteristics than the traditional youth gang. o Other Types of Youth "Gangs". Other types of groups or "quasi" gangs may include Stoners, Punk Rockers, Neo-Nazi Skinheads, Hate Groups, Satanic Groups, Motorcycle Gangs, Prison Gangs. They may be similar to traditional or street youth gangs in various ways, but have distinctive organizational, cultural, political, religious and institutional lifestyles, perspectives, and biases. They can be loosely organized or ephemeral and engage in group-oriented violent or criminal behavior to sustain or defend these beliefs. They may also be characterized by distinctive dress, leadership structure, and concerns with status and turf. o Other Youth Group Considerations. It is important to distinguish these gangs and gang-like groups from youth or street groups of an earlier era, which are still present today. These groups have been called street clubs, youth organizations, or social and athletic clubs are usually less violent or delinquent, generally contain fewer regular members, and are not as often regarded as delinquent youth gangs by local residents. They serve to socialize low-income, working-class, sometimes first-generation youths in transition from childhood to adulthood. Their activities may constitute acceptable behaviors that are considered normal rites of passage in the particular community. "Copycat" gangs may be increasingly present in some low-income and middle-class communities, often located in smaller cities, suburban, and rural areas. Youth in these groups may identify and attempt to imitate the mannerisms and behaviors of youth gangs in urban centers. Identification with gang culture, in significant measure through media influence, may be a source of novel experience and excitement for youth. The behavior of such groups constitute a challenge to authority in communities undergoing change and where family disruption is increasing. The activities of copycat gangs may sometimes have serious violent or criminal consequences. Most of these youth gangs, however, are ephemeral, engage in relatively minor delinquent acts and have little if any actual or ongoing contact with other criminal juvenile or adult groups. The threat these groups pose to the community and to the social development of their members should be carefully assessed so that a problem is not created or exaggerated where no, or very little, evidence of a sustainable or serious gang problem exists. 2. Delinquent Group. This refers to a group or collectivity, mainly of juveniles and/or adolescents, engaged usually in less serious law- violating behavior. This law-violating behavior is sometimes of a wider range, particularly with respect to property crimes, than those of youth gangs, posses, crews, and other "quasi" gangs. The delinquent group is usually less organized and more ephemeral than a youth gang. It is characterized by none of the special characteristics of gangs such as turf, distinctive dress, colors, signs or symbols. The delinquent group is the most prevalent of all deviant youth groups in most communities. 3. Criminal organization. This is usually a relatively well-organized, stable, and sophisticated clique, group, or organization of youths and/or adults committed primarily to systematic, income-producing activity of a criminal nature. Its members are essentially employees of a criminal business organization. The criminal organization may at times use intimidation and violence to achieve or protect its economic interests. The organization often provides employment for current or former gang members. Such organizations may provide illegal services or goods to the community and acquire rewards from local residents in mutually acceptable and reinforcing ways. The Loose Crew Triad and Mafia are subtypes of criminal organizations. 4. Gang clique, set, klika. The gang clique and set are terms sometimes used as equivalent to youth gang. On the other hand, a klika on the west coast may represent an entire cohort or age sector of youth (e.g., 13- and 14-year-old males) who join or are "jumped into" a street gang. The clique in its smaller-size connotation may signify a "tight" grouping of two or three youths who have similar characteristics or criminal interests. 5. Youth Gang Member. This term can indicate various types of members who engage in a range of legitimate, illegitimate, criminal, and/or violent behaviors. Leaders and core members of youth or street gangs are often (but not always) more serious and frequent offenders than are other kinds of gang members. Arrested gang members are more likely to become career criminals than arrested nongang delinquents. The following represent membership categories of the more traditional turf-based gang. In the course of a gang member's career, he or she may assume several roles: o Gang leader. This individual makes central or important decisions that affect the gang's behavior. The leader may be formally recognized as President, King, Queen, Prince, Ambassador, Old Gangster, or have no title. Leadership may also be a function shared by different members of the group, depending on particular situations, such as initiating a social or athletic affair; starting or sanctioning a gang fight; conducting a drug transaction; or negotiating criminal deals. o Core or Hardcore gang member. This is an attribution assigned, often by law enforcement, to gang members who engage consistently in gang violence and other serious gang-motivated crime, e.g., a shooter. It refers to the few gang members who are most influential in the development or implementation of the gang's violent patterns of criminal behavior. o Regular member. This gang member participates in the gang's criminal activities on a consistent and frequent basis. He or she is recognized as a member in good standing or status. o Associate. This term refers to a youth who occasionally associates with gang members on the street or elsewhere but who neither recognizes himself nor is usually, or fully, recognized by others as a gang member, except sometimes by law enforcement officials when a gang crime is committed and the particular youth is located nearby. o Soldier or peon. This is a reliable but low- status gang member. o Peripheral or Fringe member. This gang member participates periodically and selectively in gang events. He or she usually does not have high status and is not regarded as a reliable or committed gang member. The gang member may readily leave the gang and be excused from participation in many of the gang's activities. o Wannabe. This refers ordinarily to a younger (less frequently to an older) youth who wants to join the gang. He or she may be a friend or relative of a gang member or former gang member, or already be a member of a "tot" or a juvenile gang-related group. The wannabe may be sought after to join the gang and participate in its activities. o Recruit. A recruit may at times be an older youth recruited for certain skills or talents useful during crises, e.g., gang fighting. He or she may be requested to join for a limited period of time. o Youth at risk of gang membership or gang-prone youth. This is a youth who is not yet a gang member. He or she may not explicitly aspire to gang membership, nor be a target for gang recruitment. However, certain social characteristics and conditions within his or her immediate environment make the youth likely to become a gang member, such as: o he or she lives in a gang neighborhood o a member of his or her family is a gang member o he or she experiments with drugs o he or she commits delinquent acts o he or she is failing at school o he or she has certain physical or social attributes which are attractive to the gang o he or she is knowledgeable about gang lore o he or she occasionally flashes gang signs or wears gang colors o he or she is suspected by school or police of being a gang member. These characteristics or conditions, singly, may be insufficient to predispose the youth to gang membership or actually identify him or her as a gang member. The National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program is primarily concerned with the high-risk, gang-prone youth or incipient gang member who gives clear evidence of likely or actual criminal gang involvement. o Floater, go-between, operator, broker. Such a youth or adult is ordinarily not a member of a specific gang, but is well-known and has high status or respect among several gangs in the community. He or she has certain knowledge, talents, or resources useful to gangs, e.g., access to other gangs, capacity to mediate a gang fight, ability to provide legal advice, access to weapons or drugs. o Veterano, Old Head, O.G. (Old Gangster), Senior, Advisor, Counselor. This is usually an honorific status assigned to or taken by a young adult who was (or was reported to be) a gang member when he or she was younger. These adults are often no longer active gang members. They may be junkies, drug dealers, informers, racketeers, legitimate business operators, human service workers, a parent, or other respected members of the community. They sometimes attempt to influence the group or its membership to maintain gang tradition, increase or reduce gang violence, or leave the gang and pursue a legitimate (or illegitimate) adult career. A few may participate selectively on occasion in gang-motivated criminal activity. 6. Group delinquency and gang crime incidents. Not all group delinquency or crime should be classified automatically as a gang incident, e.g., purse snatching, disturbing the peace, mob action, or group assault by nongang members. Group delinquent acts are often incorrectly classified as gang motivated incidents, particularly in emerging gang problem contexts where the problem is just starting and officials do not clearly recognize or understand the distinctive character of the problem. Authorities may initially over- react and classify co-offending youth as members of a gang when their delinquent activity is neither gang-motivated nor gang-related. o Labelling gang-motivated and gang-related incidents. The police in practice often employ a combination of gang-motivated and gang-related procedures to define gang crime incidents. We believe that a system should be developed to gather and record information on gang crime which neither exaggerates nor denies, but accurately and meaningfully describes a gang event. A definition should be devised which emphasizes the gang- oriented nature of the incident, i.e., preferably using gang motivation criteria, and not simply the fact that the participant is a gang member. The argument that the gang member is influenced by his experience in the gang even when he commits a nongang crime must be balanced by two counter arguments. Often the gang member was a serious delinquent before he joined the gang. Subsequent gang-related activity should not thereby be regarded as simply those of a gang delinquent. More importantly, excessive reference to the individual as a gang member simply enhances his prestige and exaggerates the threat of the gang or gang member to the community. However, since the gang member, especially the leadership or core member is likely to be a serious offender, an information system should be developed that records both gang-motivated and gang-related crime of certain types of offenders. Special justice system attention should be paid to the gang member who is a repeat serious offender whether he commits gang-motivated or non-gang- motivated crime. Due regard must be given to the fact that not all gang members are delinquent or criminal, and not all delinquent or criminal gang members will be hard-core offenders. The complexity of the gang problem as well as due process and civil rights require that the individual gang youth should be correctly identified as a criminally-oriented gang member. He or she should not be subjected to excessive labelling and punishment, which will probably contribute neither to the protection of the community nor to the social development of the gang member in the long run. 7. Social Disorganization. As used in this manual, social disorganization refers to a lack of integration across the individual, family, organizations and community. It indicates, for example, an inability to mesh motivations, norms, values, and activities by the individual youth with those of his or her family; by family units with organizations such as the school; by units within a particular agency or organization; and across organizations in a community. At the societal and community levels, social disorganization is often associated with large and rapid population movements and social changes or disruptions, e.g., the influx of a new minority population, the outflow of middle-class families, and the failure of key institutions such as schools, law enforcement, and employers to understand and meet the needs of a new or changing population. Gangs, or even certain communities, may be regarded as coherently organized for their particular purposes. However, the predominant norms and values of these gangs and communities are usually in conflict with the legitimized norms of the larger society. Gangs meet the social and often economic needs of people in ways not approved by the dominant culture. Variables of social disorganization may not be related to variables of poverty, racism, cultural conflict, and social isolation. We believe the interaction of at least two variables, particularly social disorganization and poverty, creates high risks of gang involvement. Social disorganization may also refer to changes that bring about excessive stress or crises in patterns of transition from one state or social situation to another. These transitional patterns may be normal, expected, and desirable under circumstances of stable relationships at home and in the community. They include the transition from: childhood to adolescence; adolescence to young adulthood; one level of schooling to another; and a segregated to an integrated school system, which may require bussing. Early gang involvements are likely to occur during the transition of youth from elementary to junior high, and from junior high to high school in certain neighborhoods. Social disorganization may also be inherent in the changing of seasons. For example, gang activity seems often to rise in the fall as youth begin school, just before and after holiday breaks, and during the late spring before summer vacation. ------------------------------- There has been an increase in the youth gang problem and the need for information and guidance. This technical assistance manual is part of a four-stage research and development process. Twelve manuals have been produced. Certain processes were used to develop the manual. The purpose is to present a set of guidelines to reduce youth gang crime. Administrators and policymakers are the primary audience. The gang problem has changed and grown more serious in most regions of the country. Poverty and social disorganization are key conditions contributing to the problem. Under different community conditions, different types of gang problems appear to develop. There are variations in the gang problem by race/ethnicity, class, and newcomer status. Growing economic, social, and cultural pressures can contribute to the development of youth gangs. Violence projected by the media may exacerbate the problem. Key components of the problem are the youth gang, youth gang member, and the gang incident. Gang-motivated violence is the key but not exclusive concern of the manual. The traditional youth gang is turf-based and status-oriented, but other kinds of gangs have also developed. The focus of concern is the youth gang member, 12 to 24 years of age. Fewer females than males are gang members. Attention needs to be directed at high-risk female gang members. Different types of gang members should be carefully identified. Different definitions of the gang incident exist. The gang-motivated definition focuses on the nature of the criminal act. The gang-related definition focuses on identification of the criminal suspect as a gang member. The narrow gang-motivated definition avoids excessive labelling. The gang-related definition may be more useful to criminal justice officials. Emerging and chronic gang problem contexts may require different suppression and intervention approaches. The gang problem has had a longer history and is usually better organized and more severe in the chronic context. The gang problem is recent, less well organized, but sometimes very serious in the emerging context. High levels of general crime and gang crime are not necessarily closely associated. Secondary prevention is included in the manuals' perspective. Different strategies of suppression and intervention have been identified. Community mobilization is critically important. The opportunities provision strategy focuses on the importance of education, training, and jobs for high-risk gang-prone and gang member youth. Social intervention is based on an "outreach" and linkage approach of gang youth to the conventional society. The strategy of suppression is defined in broad social control terms and requires more than the involvement of criminal justice agencies. Criminal justice strategies must also include community mobilization, social intervention, and opportunities provision. Organizational development and change focuses on better use of internal agency resources to deal with the youth gang problem. Targeting of certain communities, gang, and gang members is necessary to make the best use of limited resources for dealing with the problem. High gang crime neighborhoods, certain types of gangs, and gang members should receive priority attention. Key targets of community agency and grassroots attention should be leadership and core gang as well as high-risk gang-prone youths. Specific framework of the Police Manual. Outline of the manual. Youth gang crime must be identified and targeted for police attention. Gang crime and community resources available to deal with it must be assessed. Developing working definitions of the problem. Reference to State law that may exist on gang crime. The importance of consistent procedures in data collection. Gang crimes to be recorded. A variety of additional categories and subcategories are useful, if reliable data sources permit. Modus operandi data. Sociodemographic and other census-type information. Many types of data besides crime data need to be collected. Gang symbols. Gang organization. Data on gang crime in public housing. Problem Schools. Outside jurisdictional influences, including prisons. Importance of dissemination of data. There are many sources of information on gangs. Establish the reliability and validity of data. A data system is only as good as the information provided to it. Location of the data management. Use of expertise. All officers need training to properly observe and record information regarding gang incidents. Data uses include targeting, evidence collection, information-sharing, planning, and budgeting. Internal coordination of youth gang information is essential. Names of gang members should be periodically purged from the file. All gang information should be verified. Analyze gang data on an ongoing basis. Specific procedures for data dissemination must be developed. The data collected should be accessible to other law enforcement and criminal justice units through user-friendly computer devices. Assess the availability and the need for other resources to fight the problem. A community-oriented approach is necessary. Care must be taken to neither deny nor overreact to the problem in emerging gang contexts. These conditions alone do not necessarily produce gangs or gang problems. Symbolic gang indicators may begin to appear, including: o graffiti o colors o clothing o tattoos o jewelry o signing Evidence of gang crimes must be established to claim the existence of an emerging problem. Community influentials may deny the problem at first. Action to take when the assessment does not support the emergence of a gang problem. Cooperation with the media. Educating the media. When there is evidence of an emerging problem, top police and government officials need to recognize the problem. The police are a critically important part of a comprehensive approach to the problem, which also requires the participation of other community agencies. Provide advice and training to community organizations. Organizational development options for emerging problem cities. Further organizational specialization and coordination may be required in chronic gang problem areas. Patrol should have a primary responsibility in antigang work. Parental involvement is important. Schools should be contacted. Approach the prosecutor for special attention to serious gang cases. Suppression (within a community framework): the primary police method for controlling gang crime. Efficient use of resources must be made. Hold serious gang offenders accountable for all law violations. Expand efforts in high gang crime communities. Public housing security with respect to gangs should receive high priority. Target gang activities around schools. Directed patrol and antigang service delivery. Directed patrol officer and the gang specialist as a team. Specific activities of the directed patrol officer. Actions by the first officer on the scene are critical in identifying an incident as gang- related. The gang officer should receive information on all gang incidents...he may have to follow- up to prevent an escalation of the violence. There are special considerations for the follow up investigation of gang incidents. A variety of organizations need to be contacted as soon as possible regarding the occurrence of gang incidents. Proactive prevention of potential gang crimes. Pay attention to special events. Be prepared to testify as an expert witness. Work closely with other justice agencies. Make special efforts to protect victims and witnesses of gang crimes. Use strike forces when gang crime reaches crisis proportions. Strike forces need to be rapidly deployed. When sweeps occur in public housing, coordinate with officials and tenant groups. Maintain legal safeguards. When sweeps occur in public housing, coordinate with officials and tenant groups. Patrol units have to expend every effort at appropriate times and places to prevent criminal activity by gangs. Special duties of patrol and gang officers. Intelligence files must comply with departmental policy. Keep files secure. Community mobilization is extremely important-- networking and organizing. Police should have an understanding of the causes and effects of gang crime. Develop positive working relationships with neighborhood. Law enforcement officers should be involved in local citizen or community task forces that address the gang problem. Provide appropriate information to community organizations. Assist local organizations in developing programs to prevent and control gangs and gang problems. Respond to the interests and concerns of grassroots organizations. Grassroots organizations are close to the problem and the police should support their efforts to deal with it. Police can directly handle limited social intervention tasks but more difficult ones need referral to community agencies. Develop brief counseling and referral skills. Police officers should participate in gang prevention education programs. Encourage and assist youth programs to extend services to gang members. The police can serve informally as positive role models. Refer gang members to employment programs. Advocate for educational and employment opportunities for gang youth. Access to the media. Avoid publicity that gives status to gangs or gang members. The media should be encouraged to help the community become aware of causes and solutions to the problem. Police should be interested in the social development of youth as well as community protection. Various types of gang officers should be selected. They must have various interests and talents. Thorough training is necessary to understand what the problem is and how best to prevent and control it. Officers from various divisions require a different training mix. Training must be comprehensive and include subjects related to gang, gang member, and gang incident identification, reporting, suppression, social intervention techniques, coordination, and working with community-based organizations. They should be able to work with and assist other components of the justice as well as community- based agencies deal with the gang problem. Evaluate the various antigang procedures and their effect on controlling the problem. Different types of process measures are required. A range of outcome measures is also required. Monitoring the policy and program of police antigang programs is important.