MAYOR, POLICE CHIEF ANNOUNCE ANTI-GANG INITIATIVE
Five-point plan involves Gang Task Force and community outreach

In an effort to crack down on the growing problem of gang violence in Anchorage, Mayor Mark Begich today announced a five-point plan to combat gangs, led by an aggressive Anchorage Police Department effort to gather better intelligence on gangs and curtail their activities. The initiative also calls for enhanced community education and involvement, participation by families and potentially tougher state and city laws.

A key element of the plan is creation of a police Gang Task Force committed to the reduction of gang-related crime. The task force will combine detectives from three units within APD which will spend this summer gathering information to identify and arrest gang leaders and hardcore, violent gang members.

The task force will be supported by two members of the Alaska National Guard’s Counter-Drug Support Program. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the School Resources Officers also will be involved in the effort.

“Anchorage is not immune from gang violence. In the past 18 months, Anchorage has seen a rise in youth and gang violence,” Begich said. “That’s why we’re here today. The impulsive and random acts of gangs put us all in danger.”

Begich, Police Chief Walt Monegan, U.S. Attorney Tim Burgess, Superintendent Carol Comeau and community and religious leaders announced the plan at a City Hall news conference. Here are the elements of the plan:

Improve intelligence gathering - Obtaining reliable information about gangs and their activities is vital for police and prosecutors to do their job. Working closely with state and federal prosecutors and other law enforcement agencies, APD is upgrading its “Gang Intel Unit” to meet this challenge.

Better focused law enforcement operations - APD is currently combining three detective units into a “Gang Task Force” for this summer and will work with federal and school district officials.

At the end of the summer, the Special Assignment Unit which will be made up of APD SWAT members, will take over the responsibilities of gang-related crime and intelligence gathering. The APD Intelligence Unit will be come part of the task force and will be staffed with available APD employees and personnel from the National Guard Counter-Drug Support Program.

Enhanced community education and support – The plan calls for stepping up work with community groups, families, churches and schools to provide youth at-risk of becoming gang members and their parents, with programs and resources designed to divert them from gang activity. To facilitate these efforts, APD will provide information to schools, business and community groups about the growing problem of gangs and how to combat them.

Better family support – The initiative will borrow a program which works well in Sacramento and Los Angeles where parents of juveniles under age 18 are notified when they are identified as gang members or associates. This will occur with the cooperation of the school district.

Tougher laws – The city is taking a hard look at existing state and local laws and will recommend changes to better crack down on gangs. This could include enhanced punishments or sentencing for serious crimes that are gang-related or motivated, tougher anti-loitering laws and revisions to landlord-tenant laws, with an emphasis on evictions due to dangerous criminal activities.

Police say they know of roughly a dozen self-defined gangs with 400 to 500 members in Anchorage. Chief Monegan said a gang task force organized by police in the mid 1990’s was successful in breaking up gangs and reducing gang violence.

“We know that identifying the leaders of gangs and getting them off the streets and into jail is an effective tool for combating gangs in our city,” Chief Monegan said. “We also know we need the support of the community in setting the tone that a gang lifestyle is unacceptable.”

“Gang activity has been on the rise nationally as well as here in Alaska,” U.S. Attorney Burgess said. “In order to solve this gang problem we must first acknowledge its existence and then work together as a community.”

“The overall goal with this five-point initiative is simple: stop gang activity now before it gets out of control and further endangers the public,” the mayor said.

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