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The Street Gangs
of Tucson
By
Michael
Garigan, Captain, and
George D. Rodriguez, Lieutenant,
Tucson, Arizona, Police Department
12/05
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From
The Police Chief, vol. 72, no. 12, December 2005. Copyright held by the
International Association of Chiefs of Police, 515 North Washington
Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 USA.
Tucson's Strategy
The foremost problem every city faces with regard to gangs is accepting
that a problem existed. Once the gang denial hurdle is overcome, police
can put a strategic plan in place. In 1994 Tucson officials recognized
the gang problem and instituted a plan to control gang crime in Tucson.
Tucson's antigang strategy involved enforcement, intervention, and
education, and the Tucson Police Department Gang Interdiction Unit was
involved in every facet of the strategy. Of the three components,
enforcement has been the most effective.
Gang Culture
In order to apply effective enforcement strategies to the gang problem,
police need to understand the basic characteristics of gang culture.
Gang crime is recidivistic in nature. Criminal street gangs commit
crimes to achieve goals, such as claiming territory or illicit markets.
Gang leaders use other members in the group to commit their crimes.
Street gangs use violence to achieve their goals.
Gang Structure: Tucson police officers note that common street gangs
lack a formal hierarchy; instead, they have either situational
leadership or a core group of leaders that give the gang its criminal
purpose. Often, a member who demonstrates or asserts control at a
particular time assumes the leadership role. In smaller gangs, it is
more likely that a single individual will become the recognized leader.
Typically, law enforcement is hesitant to accept the criminal structure
of a street gang as a foundation for organized-crime investigations.
Nevertheless, showing this criminal structure can provide law
enforcement with the necessary elements for employing antiracketeering
statutes against street gangs because the gang members commit crimes as
members of the group. Tucson has successfully prosecuted street gangs
using the state version of the federal antiracketeering statutes.
But employing the antiracketeering statutes does have its challenges.
Between 1996 and 1998 Tucson's conspiracy investigations were very
effective, until prosecutors were dissuaded by the workload these cases
created.
Detectives and officers must develop an expertise in working the gang
culture for enforcement to be effective and efficient. In Tucson, gang
expertise has proven to be critical in solving crime and making
courtroom presentations.
Gang Crimes: As gangs mature; they typically shift their focus from
territorial rivalry to economic crimes. Gang members no longer fight
over colors or turf; their disputes are over money and illicit markets.
The gang culture presents inherent prosecution obstacles. In order for
juries to have a better appreciation of the gang culture, gang
detectives are expected to testify as experts. Victims and witnesses are
normally other gang members who present credibility concerns and will
continue to commit crimes pending the judicial process. As members of
gang squads sometimes say, "Today's victim is tomorrow's suspect." Gang
detectives are able to work through this phenomenon and remain
relentless in bringing their cases to successful conclusions.
Gang Violence: Violence is almost always used to achieve the gang's
criminal objectives, and violent criminal acts are committed to further
the gang's influence. Gang members understand the power of intimidation
and use this tool their advantage.
Gang violence is an effective intimidation weapon against prosecution
witnesses. Tucson's gang detectives now transport victims and witnesses
to hearings and trials for their testimony. In order to be successful,
gang detectives must address intimidation tactics that gang associates
use in and out of the courtroom.
Preliminary hearings are useful because they preserve testimony that
witnesses and victims may not be in a position to provide as court cases
proceed through the system. In other cases, witnesses and victims have
been subpoenaed before grand juries for their testimony. Their refusal
to testify or their delivery of perjurious testimony has led to witness
and victim arrest.
A Gang Career
Between 1990 and 2000 the average age of a gang member was between 12
and 18. Many were tried as adults for the crimes they committed. Today's
gang member is between the ages of 17 and 25 In addition, many gang
members who were first incarcerated in the mid-1990s are being released
from prison.
Tucson is finding that gang members who were recently released from
prison are offending again within three years of their release. U.S.
Department of Justice studies find that 67.5 percent of prison inmates
who were imprisoned for violent offenses offend again within three years
of their release.2 In addition to first-time criminals in the
criminal justice system, the career criminal continues to add to the
violent crime rate. This data supports the premise that most criminals
choose a criminal lifestyle. In this context, criminal behavior is
considered an individual choice.
Besides contending with the recidivism problem, Tucson faces the release
of suspects who reoffend and revictimize while pending trial. A small
segment of society, estimated to be between 5 and 7 percent, chooses to
be a criminal. But this small percentage commits a series of crimes
before they are apprehended and after they are arrested and released.
Current justification for the frequent pretrial release lies with
overcrowded detention facilities. Although the pretrial release of most
suspects is based on ties to the community and tangible promises to
appear in court, the difficulty is determining who might reoffend and
the system's inability to keep suspects away from society.
Gang members are known to be serial criminals. Recently, a newspaper
reporter told Tucson officers that he could not see why so much effort
went into addressing the drug and gang crime problem in Tucson. The
reporter based his comment on the fact that most violent crime is
perpetrated between gang members and drug dealers, so let them just
finish each other off. Why spend all of law enforcement's energy and
effort on solving these crimes?
History provides the reporter's answer. The 1930s are remembered as the
gangster era. During those times, many persons advocated ignore the
gangs because it was just gangsters killing each other. What is
overlooked is that the criminal mind internalizes lack of accountability
as freedom to act at will. With this apathy in place, the 1930s gangster
crime resulted in the incidental killing of innocents in public places.
The average citizen no longer felt safe walking down the street or
eating at a favorite restaurant.
Tucson's answer to the reporter is simple. Criminals must expect that
they will be held accountable and that there are consequences for their
behavior. Accountability and consequences are key components in
controlling criminal street gangs.
Firearms and Gangs
Nationally, firearms account for the death of 70 percent of all
homicides.3 In 1997 the Gang Interdiction Unit and GTAC began
to work gun shows held in Tucson. These deployments proved to be
successful in apprehending and convicting gang members, and other
criminals, for purchasing firearms. Since most of these criminals were
convicted felons, the purchase of firearms by them was illegal. Project
Exile, a federal firearms program, was used to prosecute these cases.4
State and federal prosecutors would review the investigation and
decide which court system would provide the most significant impact for
the investigation. Law enforcement and prosecutor cooperation was vital
in this effort.
In August 2000 the foundation of the Tucson Police Department's
prohibited possessor prosecution program was established in
collaboration with the International Association of Chiefs Police
through the IACP's interdicting illegal firearms program. By July 2003,
Project Safe Neighborhoods allowed gun prosecutors to be added to the
county prosecutor's office. These attorneys coordinate with federal
prosecutors and aggressively pursue gun offenders. Today, a prohibited
possessor identification system is housed within the Tucson's
Investigations Division. Prosecution of prohibited possessors is
accomplished in cooperation with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms, and Explosives' Project Safe Neighborhood program. Daily
enforcement of prohibited possessor and firearms statutes are
accomplished after the Gang Interdiction Unit checks police contacts of
known gang members. If a gang member is reported to have been in
possession of a firearm, the status of his right to possess a firearm is
established. If the gang member is determined to be a prohibited
possessor, he or she is arrested for illegal possession of the firearm.
Gun cases have increased gang detectives' workload by 82 percent, but
the decrease in gang-related violent crime suggests that the extra work
is paying off.
Intelligence Gathering
The strategic design for intelligence gathering includes the development
of a comprehensive database that tracks all known gang members and
associates. The database must be a secure network that allows access for
those persons who have a need to know as well as allowing access for
patrol officers, detectives, supervisors, and other law enforcement
groups when they have legitimate need. The Tucson database, which
contains information on 3,100 gang members, is managed by a crime
analyst.
The data are gathered from a large array of sources. For a gang member
to be placed into the database, he or she must meet at least one of the
seven criteria for classification as a criminal street gang member, as
established by the Arizona Revised Statutes.5 The
intelligence is gleaned from arrests, weekly gang investigation
meetings, gang member identification cards (GMIC) completed by Tucson
officers, and other reliable sources. The database was developed in 1994
and tracks both local and migratory gangs. The database captures the
following data:
Personal data on the gang member or associate, which includes aliases;
home, school and work addresses; and phone numbers
-
Associate information
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Associated and registered vehicles
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Facts and circumstances surrounding how
the information was derived
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Information that confirms that the subject
is a gang member or associate
Most of this information is obtained from
field interviews and incident reports generated by officers and
detectives. In addition, the information is exchanged at weekly meetings
attended by probation and parole officers, officers and detectives in
the metropolitan area, school security staff, and social service agency
representatives. Information exchanged at these meetings is memorialized
in the meeting's minutes. When the gang database is queried, gang
minutes are also searched for suspect name, vehicle, or keywords from
the search request.
The gang database has proved to be a very effective tool in capturing
gang members who have been arrested by patrol officers. The Tucson
Police Department uses COPLINK as its integrating computer program.
Officers who need to follow leads for a suspect, vehicle, or address use
COPLINK, which performs searches even when officers have limited suspect
information.
COPLINK links Tucson's computer-aided dispatch system, records
management system, the gang database, and all of the department's
computerized databases in a single program. COPLINK also interfaces with
law enforcement databases outside the Tucson area. For example, COPLINK
has brought the Tucson and Phoenix Police Departments together by virtue
of technology, and the cities are 120 miles apart. The Phoenix Police
Department and the Tucson Police Department share law enforcement
databases through COPLINK. Soon, COPLINK will integrate databases
between Tucson police and the Pima County Sheriff's Department, the San
Diego Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and
U.S. Border Protection. As other police departments in Arizona approve
COPLINK intergovernmental agreements, law enforcement will have finally
closed the gap on the transient gang criminal.
Computer-aided searches allow gang investigators in the Tucson Police
Department to seek maximum prosecution for gang members who can slip
through the cracks of the criminal justice system. Gang supervisors can
query our computer databases using Structured Query Language, or SQL
(pronounced "sequel"), for matches on gang members who had recent police
contacts. These queries have resulted in upgrading simple carrying
concealed weapons charges that were made in the field to prohibited
possessor indictments. In Arizona, concealed weapons charges are
misdemeanors. A suspect could pay a fine for these charges and bring
closure to the misdemeanor charge. Since many gang members are convicted
felons, these searches have allowed gang investigators to dismiss
misdemeanor charges and file felony prohibited possessor charges against
the suspect. Computer programs have simplified tracking suspect's
activities and maximizing their accountability in the criminal justice
system.
The intelligence that is gathered, stored, and retrieved becomes clearly
relevant when a crime occurs, suspects are identified, and the arrest
takes place. As a rule, the system notes any possible trends and purges
persons who have shown not gang activity within the last 5 years.
Police departments of any size can institute a targeted gang enforcement
program. The Tucson Police Department's gang database began with the use
of index cards, field photographs, and file folders that organized
information officers collected during their gang contacts. At a minimal
expense, today's user-friendly computer programs allow gang units to
store and retrieve gang information with ease. Police departments with
laptops or mobile tactical computers can access this information in the
field where this information is most useful.
Specialized Investigations
Specialized investigations are important to a successful gang strategy.
Gang officers and detectives tend to develop the expertise and can
readily identify members and gang rivalries when crimes are committed.
This leads to high solvability rates that investigative details that do
not specialize in these investigations do not enjoy.
Homicide: Until 1998 the Tucson Police Department Homicide Detail
investigated gang murders. The Homicide Detail uses motive for
classifying murder cases. However, using motive to classify gang crime
will underreport the gang problem. In many cases, motive is difficult to
determine or distracts from the essence of gang crime. The Gang Unit
classifies some crimes as gang-member-involved when a gang member is
involved in a crime. This classification helps Tucson law enforcement
more accurately identify the size and scope of the community's gang
problem.
Important to the number of gang-related homicides are the clearance
rates for these investigations. Before the change in 1998, gang murders
were underestimated, according to the gang-related definition that the
Gang Unit uses. However, with increased murders, which were identified
as gang murders, clearance rates increased to 95 percent from less than
a 50 percent. The increased solvability rate with increased numbers of
murders can be attributed to the expertise of the gang detectives.
Before 1998 assigning a gang detective to respond to the scene with
homicide detectives was not successful because of the lack of ownership
and long-term responsibility. Today, Tucson gang detectives investigate
gang-related murders, aggravated assaults, robberies, and prohibited
possessor cases. The Tucson Police Department considers a crime
gang-related when a gang member is involved in a crime, not merely when
a crime appears to be gang-motivated. When properly investigated and
prosecuted, these crimes can significantly affect the structure of a
criminal street gang and its membership.
Assaults: While gang crime is decreasing in Tucson, other areas of the
United States are experiencing increases in gang crime. In Tucson,
gang-related aggravated assaults have declined 17 percent from 2002 to
2003. Over the past two years, gang-related aggravated assaults
decreased by 33 percent. Investigator specialization and the pursuit of
gang members from all avenues are responsible for the success in the
decline in aggravated assaults. Aggravated assaults provide law
enforcement a large statistical base that provides greater insight to
the violent crime in a community.
Gang Tactical Street Squad: A tactical street squad supports daily
enforcement and intelligence gathering on gang members. The street
squad, known as GTAC, comprises officers who know about active street
gangs and supports active investigations that gang detectives put
together. GTAC officers are tasked with developing information sources
on gang activity and provide constant police pressure on gangs. GTAC
officers are the main source of information that is put into the gang
database. GTAC officers use direct contact and surveillance tactics to
achieve their goals. On several occasions, GTAC has been able to
identify and track gang suspects responsible for robberies, assaults,
and murders. This squad is instrumental in tying investigations and
street level enforcement together.
Transferability
In developing the Tucson gang investigative method, the department
integrated three specific elements: intelligence, relentless
investigations, and tactical support. These functions place an important
focus on the process and close the loop in these interdependent
processes.
Although the focus of this article was on investigation, the
three-pronged approach of enforcement, intervention, and education is
considered important in every local program. The Tucson gang abatement
method can be implemented in agencies of all sizes.
1 U.S. Department of Justice,
National Youth Gang Survey.
2 U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 2002.
3 U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, September
2003.
4 "Project Safe Neighborhoods," USA Bulletin, vol. 50, no.
1., January 2002.
5 Arizona Revised Statutes: 13-105 (8) 1995.
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