By Noelle Edwards
nedwards@salisburypost.com
Gov. Bev Perdue on Friday told mayors of the largest North Carolina cities that eliminating gang activity from a community requires a combination of law enforcement and early prevention.
Perdue spoke at a summit of the North Carolina Metropolitan Mayors Coalition aimed at finding ways to reduce gang violence.
The event, called “Seamless Solutions to Urban Crime,” pulled together mayors of the 25 largest North Carolina cities, judges, law enforcement officials and others to address what several speakers called a growing problem in the state.
Perdue said law enforcement officers must work with civic and faith groups to address the underlying reasons teenagers join gangs.
She said a state pilot program helps children who are at risk of being recruited by gangs choose differently.
Jonathan Williams, deputy secretary of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, said a child is considered at risk if he or she has no caregiver after school, has family members who are in a gang or lives in a neighborhood with a gang.
Perdue said the pilot program offers family counseling to educate parents about the dangers of gangs and also to help them parent more effectively ó provide more structure, for instance, or supervise kids more closely.
The program also helps current gang members leave gangs by working with them to find housing and removing tattoos that mark their membership.
The problem of gang violence is one Salisbury Mayor Susan Kluttz feels deeply, she said as she spoke to the group in a morning session.
She told of the 2007 death of Salisbury resident Treasure Feamster, 13, who was killed by gang crossfire after leaving a party at the J.C. Price American Legion building.
Only a month before Treasure’s death, Salisbury City Council made tackling the gang problem a priority for the coming year.
She said the gang problem is complex because it requires addressing hardened adult criminals and children who are at risk of joining gangs simultaneously.
Michael Yaniero, police chief of Jacksonville and the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Chiefs, outlined the problem across the state.
He said 87 percent of North Carolina jurisdictions reported gang activity. He said the state has 550 gangs in North Carolina with an average of 26 members, age 15 to 27 in general.
Williams put the number of North Carolina gangs even higher, at 900.
Alvin Keller, secretary of the Department of Correction, said gang members have become more technically savvy and better at avoiding detection.
William Lassiter, director of communications for the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, said more than 9 percent of children in the justice system are identified as being involved with a gang. He said generational gang involvement is also growing, where someone with a father or mother in a gang grows up and joins a gang too.
He said 67 percent of school systems report having a gang presence.
In the wake of Treasure’s death, City Council held a session for residents to suggest ways to fight gang violence.
From that meeting, eight strategies emerged, including instituting work programs for teenagers, mentoring and increasing awareness among community members.
Other speakers at Friday’s summit had similar suggestions.
Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s attorney general, said tougher laws and sentences are important, but even when a gang member is jailed, the gang will recruit others to take his or her place.
“We must get to the root of the problem,” he said. “We must get to these kids earlier in life.”
He said 40 percent of people who commit violent crimes and serve jail time are rearrested three years after their release.
An effective approach would help turn lawbreakers into productive citizens, he said, not just add to their sentence.
Williams said successful efforts include a program in High Point that identifies gang members and then meets with the whole group to encourage them to finish their education, get jobs and disband the gang.
Other programs work with schools, setting up hotlines for gang members to get help getting out and family counseling.
A technology called Gang Net has been helpful on the law enforcement side, he said. It identifies potential gang members based on 11 criteria.
Lassiter said school systems in suspending students for bad behavior often contribute to the problem because the students are then left at home all day, sometimes for several days, with no structure and no supervision.
They have time to get into trouble, he said.
He said his department offers $5 million in grant money for communities to assess their gang problems and to implement programs such as mentoring and counseling.
He said the state has also set aside $6 million for certain counties, including Rowan, to help people coming out of the Youth Development Centers transition back to normal life without getting into gang activity.
After a morning of speakers, concluding with Perdue, people attending the summit broke into groups to discuss ideas for curbing gang activity.
A summit in the spring will continue the problem-solving.
Perdue said the problem must be solved, despite financial and other barriers.
“Our challenge as leaders,” she said, “is to be sure in 10 or 12 years that somebody who’s dropped out of high school doesn’t say, ‘Well, I was just born at the wrong time.’ ”
She pointed to Livingstone College’s efforts at helping at-risk kids and provide GED programs.
She challenged those in attendance to make sure every child in their communities has an adult who is actively involved in his or her life, whether it’s a parent, a teacher, a church member or some other role model.
“We’ve made a good start,” she said. “We’re certainly not there, but we’ve made a good start.”