Thread: Gangs In The Triangle: The Police

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Gangs In The Triangle: The Police

POSTED: 9:57 pm EST November 23, 2005
UPDATED: 11:28 pm EST November 23, 2005

DURHAM, N.C. -- The battle lines have been between gangs and police.

There's a war underway in Triangle and police are combining old techniques with new ideas to get the upper hand.

The siren blares, traffic parts and Sgt. Joe Kelly is on the move again. The two-year veteran of the Durham Police Gang Unit is engaged in a familiar cat-and-mouse routine.

It's a hunt for a suspected drug dealer who could be a gang member.

"The people we deal with on the drug side we also deal with on the gang side," Kelly told NBC-17.

The gang side is a side rapidly spreading through communities like Durham.

Durham sheriff's deputy Keith Dodson has written a book entitled "The Gang P.L.A.G.U.E That T.A.R.G.E.T.S Your Community." It's described as a guide for parents and teachers on the emerging gang culture that's scarring the walls and menacing the streets.

"This is MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha," Dodson says, pointing to graffiti scrawled on a dumpster in Durham. MS-13 is a South American gang that has spread its roots into several countries.

"They gain power through intimidation and people are intimidated by them because, yes, they are scary," Dodson explains. "Yes, they do use weapons and, yes, they do kill."

To gain some perspective, NBC-17 talked with Washington, D.C.'s former top lawman, Isaac Fulwood.

"It's a cancer you can't treat with a band-aid," Fulwood said.

Fulwood was chief of the Metropolitan Police Department in the late '80s and early '90s when crack cocaine and gang violence erupted like an atomic bomb.

There were record arrests and a record-high murder rate.

One of those murders took place in the Sersum Corda Cooperative in Washington a little more than a decade ago. Suspected gang members opened fire on a 14-year-old girl, leaving yet another family to grieve and Fulwood searching for the right words to say.

"... And this person is completely out of control, and they're asking, 'Why did this happen?'" Fulwood remembers. "And you're standing there, trying to explain the impossible."

It was a watershed moment. Fulwood called a summit with the leaders of about 50 known gangs.

"I said, 'We're going to put you on notice about certain things, but we also want to know if there are other ways to deal with this to create some opportunities for you," Fulwood said.

Fulwood said the carrot and stick model worked. Violence was reduced and police now have better intelligence.

The city of Durham is now trying a similar approach. A police-run program called S.T.A.R.S (Strategies To Abate and Reduce Senseless Violence) gives participating gang members access to job training, substance-abuse treatment, and counseling as soon as they leave jail.

"What you try to do is intervene," Durham Police Chief Steve Chalmers told NBC-17. "Show (gang members) support and that there is another way."

A study by UNC-Greensboro shows the S.T.A.R.S. program is working. But, they are not saving everyone.

"I think we've won a few battles," Dodson said. "But we haven't won the war."

"It's an ongoing struggle," Sgt. Kelly said.

In Siler City, NC, final home of Mayberry's Aunt Bee, they have "signs here of gang 'wannabes'" according to this week's paper. Here it's supposedly an international hispanic gang call the "18th" Street Gang. But truth be told, they probably have no clue how many there are or who they are.

Oh well, it's those family values again I guess.