The Suburban King County Coordinating Council on Gangs, an organization created in 2011 to help stymie gang issues has begun implementing a plan to help reduce and intervene in gang problems in South King County, including Renton, Auburn and Kent.
The council members include Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke, Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas, members from the Kent School District and Mike Heinisch, executive director with Kent Youth and Family Services.
According to Anica Stieve, the group is working off of a set of anti-gang strategies from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Gang Model. The model implements five strategies (community mobilization, opportunities provision, social intervention, suppression and organizational change) to reduce the likelihood that youth in a community will get involved in gang activity.
The gang council recently finished its work collecting data on gang activity in the South King County area. Data came from both the Kent Police department as well as various social organizations that work in the community.
Randy Heath, Brad Brown, Thuan Nguyen and Chris Loftis represented the Kent School District at the council meetings.
An important step, said Brown, was being sure to get more than just the top levels of observation involved. Instead of district and department level input, he said, the council looked for input from teachers and patrol officers just as much as superintendents and police chiefs.
“When you have these meetings you’re talking about mayors and police chiefs, they’re getting a very filtered view as opposed to a police officer,” said Brown. “It was a good opportunity to get the corridor together, in terms of what they’re seeing, in terms of gang affiliation, gang activity.” It’s also provided a starting point for action against gang activity, which, Brown says is sorely needed.
“You just can’t say ‘oh we got gangs, what are you going to do about it?'” Brown said.
“This is a tragic waste of potential for the youth who become caught up in a world that puts their futures, their very lives and the safety of their communities at risk,” said Bobbe Bridge, a retired Washington State Supreme Court justice and founder of the Center for Children and Youth Justice. “These men and women deserve a chance at a healthy future, a happy life, and opportunity to beat the odds and thrive.”
According to a media release from the gang council, the group is coordinating its first outreach teams to intervene with gang-involved youth. Ultimately, the teams will connect the youth with services for guidance, mentoring and a more positive future.
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