Gang unit sees success

Between January and August of 2008, the number of gang members arrested in Prince William County was 197, according to statistics presented to supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting.

By comparison, 255 were arrested throughout 2007, said county police Detective Dennis Gill, and 226 and 263 were arrested in 2006 and 2005, respectively.

The presentation was aimed at giving supervisors an idea of the success level of a special task force unit formed in 1992, when gangs reportedly first appeared in the county, as well as a general overview of the reasons teens and young adults join, and other gang-related basics.

For instance, contrary to widespread belief, the majority of gang members in Prince William are adults, said Gill, who has been a member of the task force for nearly five years.

Other reported myths: All gang members are of a certain race; all gang members hail from poverty-stricken, single-parent homes; and all gang members are male. What is true, however, is that several gang members are enrolled in county schools and have been the subject of police scrutiny and arrest in the past couple years, he said.

“There’s been several incidents as a result of that,” Gill said, citing one recent example that involved three school-age gang members who met in a church parking lot across the street from Gar-Field High School, awaiting opportunity to fight rival members.

“We found a machete in his pants leg,” Gill said, of one suspect.

Further, police have responded to several incidents at Stonewall High School that resulted in arrests and were later discovered to have stemmed from “tensions between gang members,” he said.

Prince William is finding relief from gang-related crime, however. Gill said one gang member recently said his membership had dropped considerably in the county and had moved to regions north, due in part to the unit’s enforcement of zero tolerance policy for gang activity.

“Prevention, that’s the best way” to lower the level of gang participation in the community, Gill said. “And number one on the list is for parents to be involved in their children’s lives. Listen to them … but don’t hesitate to search their bedrooms. I had parents say [they] didn’t know [their] child was in a gang and I’ve walked in the bedroom and they’ve had MS-13 written on the wall.”

Vice chair John Stirrup, R-Gainesville, asked if police statistics were in line with recent findings from the Center for Immigration Studies - a non-profit located in Washington, D.C., to analyze the fiscal and social impacts of immigration – that “60-90-percent of MS-13 gang members are illegal aliens.”

Gill said he couldn’t “speak to the exact percentage, but I can tell you it is significant, yes.”

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.