The Garden City Telegram
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Officer: Age of local gang members getting younger
Published 10/18/2008 in News : Politics
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
Finney County commissioners will address one of their strategic goals Monday as they listen to a presentation from Kelly Rodriguez, the gang resource officer through the county's Youth Services.
According to information Rodriguez plans to present to commissioners, the officer works with various agencies and entities, including USDs 457 and 363, to prevent gang activity and to help youth at risk of joining a gang. Rodriguez also works with youth on probation at court and youth services; meets individually with youth who have gang involvement; maintains a presence within youth services by sitting in on classes and helping youth during community service; works with parents of gang-involved youth; and provides the community and school districts with gang education.
Information gathered this summer shows about 22 percent of youth on probation with youth services are documented gang members, and about 28 percent of youth on probation are gang associates or affiliates.
Rodriguez states there are about 250 gang members and gang associates documented in Garden City; six gangs that have 10 or more members; and seven other documented gangs in Garden City that have less than 10 members.
"I do not see Garden City's gang population growing exponentially," Rodriguez states. "However, the trend that I am seeing and I believe many schools are seeing is the age of kids getting involved in gangs is getting lower. Garden City is starting to see more kids in the third and fourth grade getting involved in gangs.
So far, Rodriguez's work has included giving gang prevention presentations to at least three elementary schools in USD 457; giving trainings to those at the Southwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center on gangs they're dealing with in the county and how to work with those youth; tracking juveniles on the Internet to monitor associations and activities; etc.
Currently, Rodriguez is setting up a parental gang awareness meeting.
"This will be open to anyone in the community and talk about the signs to look for to see if your child is becoming involved in a gang, and how they can prevent their children from joining a gang," Rodriguez said.
County commissioners met in May with Finney County Sheriff's deputies Joe York and Todd Wasinger, part of the Finney County Sheriff's Office Street Gang Unit, as well as Sheriff Kevin Bascue, Youth Services Director Leroy Gerber and Detention Center Director John Kennis to discuss the county's and city's gang activity. The meeting was part of the county's effort to improve health and crime prevention strategies, which is a goal in the county's 2008-09 Strategic Plan Action Program.
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