As the push to track violent and subtle gang-related patterns intensifies statewide, there still appears to be no discussion among N.C. Board of Education members about requiring schools to report gang-related activities.
Evidence shows that gangs have infiltrated schools. Police officers and deputies assigned to schools, Known as school resource officers, annually go through training to be on the lookout for gang activity. Although each school system has liberty to draft a policy recording gang activity, referring to, or obtaining facts, about potential cyclical patterns, state education leaders apparently have failed to address the problem.
“We don’t even track that through law enforcement,” said Lt. Mark Bridgeman of the Fayetteville Police Department, president of the North Carolina Gang Investigators Association. “There is nowhere on the crime incident report, no box, to report gangs. Some agencies may elect to do that, but there is no box under the uniform crime report.”
Bridgeman said he is aware that agencies slowly are starting to track gang activity regularly with 62 out of 100 counties recently collecting data. Passed by the General Assembly, a program called NC GangNet encourages law enforcement officials to collect information. Some of the information, however, is based on estimates, not on
intelligence data.
“That’s a good start,” Bridgeman said. “It’s one of those things that, until we start using it, and have effective legislation that gives us something to work with, I’m confident that over the years, we will become more effective at combating gangs at the suppression level (when law enforcement steps in).”
Defining a gang is a tedious task in itself, Bridgeman said, trying to get all parties involved to agree on what is a gang. According to the Governor’s Crime Commission study in March, “A Comprehensive Assessment of Gangs in North Carolina: A Report to the General Assembly,” the subjectivity of the term “gang” could cause various reactions on how to identify a gang.
The National Youth Gang Center survey asked law enforcement personnel to identify youth gangs as “a group of youths or young adults in a jurisdiction that an officer or other responsible persons in the agency or community are willing to identify as a gang.” The study determines, “Such a definition lacks objective criteria and subjects itself severely to personal opinion and an overestimation of numbers. Law enforcement personnel may, or may not, include groups such as prison and motorcycle gangs, hate groups, and any number of unsupervised teen groups.”
“We need to train law enforcement to determine if something is a gang-related incident,” Bridgeman said. “I would imagine if we started reporting school incidents in the state that it would be up for a lot of scrutiny and debate, probably rightfully so.”
The Assembly passed legislation in July that defined gang activity and created felonious charges for those who participate in gangs. Both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation that limits penalties toward youth offenders. Youths 16 and younger cannot be charged with gang-related felonies, and first-time offenders of lesser felonies could get convictions erased based on a track record of good behavior.
The legislation allocates $10 million in the state budget to pay for the measure. Gov. Mike Easley also signed into law a plan directing county and state Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils to assess the needs of juveniles who are at-risk of joining gangs. The councils are required to review gang activity and report their findings to the state.
“We’re the last state in the region to pass legislation,” Bridgeman said. “Others in the region have done that. (Gang activity) will fester, and before you know it, you really have a problem. We’re kind of at a crossroads in North Carolina. Action needs to be up to a community’s standards. What works in Fayetteville and Charlotte may not work in Greensboro or Winston. You have to recognize that. The players are different; different personalities are out there.”
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction requires every school system in the state to report acts of crime and violence according to 17 reportable categories, which range from students being reported for having drugs or alcohol – two categories that traditionally have higher rates – to assault on school personnel not resulting in serious injury, and assault involving the use of a weapon. There is no specific category to report gang-related activities or incidents.
The Governor’s Crime Commission study estimates that there are 14,500 gang members residing throughout North Carolina, with an average gang consisting of 26 members. It was reported that about “82 percent, or 449 gangs, were reported to have links with larger groups or with gangs outside of the state. Thirty percent, or 134 gangs, were purported to have primary ties with other Blood sets, while 17 percent were reported as being connected to Crip sets.”
Gangs are highly mobile, and clever when it comes to marketing themselves. To combat any trends, such as teen-agers sneaking away from school to participate in criminal activity, the study asks for schools to develop stronger truancy programs.
“Truancy programs must be developed in cooperation with the school system,” according to the 2008 report. “This allows for more accurate reporting of the problem by school officials, a strengthened relationship between schools and police, and increased data available to both.”
The crime commission study says DPI “sponsors and encourages programs on the recognition of gang activities and involvement, and prevention of gangs in schools,” but does not suggest it has a uniform way to educate those who are completing and sending in the reports. Human error and accuracy might be a hindrance when trying to get a fair depiction on what’s going on within schools. School system personnel already struggle with trying to define how to report acts deemed as criminal and violent.
The crime commission report includes a section that says, “There is a general assumption that adolescents have a need to form groups. This can be for various social, emotional or economic reasons. However, sometimes these groups conflict with societal values, and it is no secret that teenage years proliferate the most gang activity for individuals. Schools are one of the best opportunities for gang recruitment, thus also making them one of the best opportunities for gang prevention and intervention.”
“One thing that is helping gangs is the Internet,” Bridgeman said. “Web pages have really become prevalent with gangs. That’s one of the big things that we’re looking at as well. Parents need to look out for those things by reviewing MySpace accounts, and monitor student activities on the net. Parents need to demand from their kids the user name and password for their MySpace accounts. There’s an easy fix. You can just take their computer rights and privileges out of the way and pull their power cord out of the wall. But really, there has to be a dialogue about that, not always just monitoring.”
There is an order to things when it comes to combating gangs, Bridgeman said, first starting with prevention, and ending with suppression. “We need prevention from the beginning, from the onset,” Bridgeman said. “Then intervention, when there is already involvement, we need to intervene and get them out of the pattern; even if they don’t want to change. Then there is suppression, and that’s when law enforcement steps in. We prefer there to be no law enforcement in the beginning. Ultimately, we want the worst of the worst out of our communities, and the creation of re-entry models throughout the state for those who go off to prison and then return to the community.”
Some youths tend not to take gangs seriously, and much of “gang” culture has entered the mainstream over the years. For example, teen-agers who are just joking around, flashing symbols and using certain mannerisms, could offend real gang members who have pride in their gang. Retaliation is not limited to only gang members.
One of the best recruiting places for gangs is a school. In the 2007-08 school year, only 48 public schools were recognized as completely safe. “It’s hard for students to focus on learning and academics if they’re concerned about their safety,” June Atkinson, state superintendent, said in a statement. “Creating a safe learning environment is an important foundation for learning.”
Vanessa Jeter, director of communications and information for DPI, said the department has not had any preliminary conversation discussing the possibility of adding another reportable act to the crime and violence reporting.
Jana Benscoter is a contributing editor of Carolina Journal.