The Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force — which officials say has helped decrease gang violence in the region by more than 30 percent — isn’t exactly rolling in cash.
So officials from the task force were pleased to accept a check for $850,000 from the U.S. Marshal’s Service for the Eastern District of Virginia at a ceremony Friday afternoon — but the best part, they said, was where the money came from.
The $850,000 was seized when authorities busted an illegal gambling ring in Falls Church last August — and now, those funds will be used to prevent gang violence in the area.
That bust, which occurred at the Eden Center, a Vietnamese-American strip mall, has been the center of some controversy. Some locals have said that the bust wasn’t justified and hurt business in the area, the Associated Press has reported.
Officials say Northern Virginia’s task force, which has been around since 2003, has been experiencing funding problems lately because it’s received most of its federal funding under a congressional earmark, a funding mechanism that allows local congressmen to skirt funding competitions within federal agencies. But earmarks have been abolished by Congress, and local jurisdictions have been forced to pick up the tab for gang-prevention programs that the task force was previously able to fund.
The task force plans to use the money it received Friday on training and overtime payments for officers, as well as prevention programs like a soccer league for at-risk youth and a tattoo removal program for gang members who want to leave their gang.
“Our model isn’t just lock ’em up and put ’em away,” said Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Fairfax, who was on hand at Friday’s presentation. “That’s why this money is so important — and it’s not taxpayer dollars. This is money coming from bad guys doing bad things.”
Gang violence has been a concern in Northern Virginia for some time, officials say. The area is a national hub for the violent street gang MS-13, and it saw a number of gang-related killings in recent years. Since the task force’s inception, gang violence in the region has decreased by 34 percent.
“The task force is most effective for the smaller jurisdictions,” said Falls Church Police Chief Harry Reitze, who added that his jurisdiction wouldn’t be able to fund gang-prevention programs on its own. “This problem is not going to go away, and we need resources and personnel.”
