Citing reports from school officials that children as young as 10 are being recruited into gangs, Montgomery County officials are seeking nearly $3 million from the federal government to double their anti-gang squad.
County leaders say the money, which would also be used to increase police overtime and create a new youth center, is necessary because gang-related crime is on the rise in Montgomery and throughout the region.
Gang incidents, which can include anything from graffiti to homicide, have skyrocketed in Montgomery over the past year, going from 360 incidents in 2006 to 466 in 2007, according to police officials.
Police spokesman Lt. Paul Starks said gang officers are aware of recruitment occurring in county schools, but declined to comment further about the practices. In the request for federal funds, county officials said “Montgomery County has received calls from school staff that report regular incidents of juveniles, as young as 10 years old, being recruited into gangs.” A school spokeswoman said she could not comment on the matter because a school security official was on leave.
Starks said, however, that gang officers believe things are improving in the county, because there have been no major reports of violent gang activity since a roughly two-week surge in November.
During that time, one teenager was stabbed to death at a Gaithersburg bus center, two teenagers were shot at the Shady Grove Metro station, another teen was stabbed at a Gaithersburg Wendy’s and a 26-year-old was stabbed on the street in Gaithersburg.
Police said all incidents were gang-on-gang violence related to a feud between local gangs that identify themselves with the Bloods and Crips. Officers arrested at least seven individuals in connection with the attacks.
Although no major incidents of gang violence have been reported in the past few months, the county is seeing an increase in gang graffiti, going from 25 reported incidents between July and September 2007 to 45 incidents in the year’s final quarter.
“This could be because we are more accurately classifying events as gang-related where they may not have been properly classified before,” Starks said.
According to police reports, the number of known, active gang members in Montgomery County rose 20 percent between June 2006 and July 2007. That would mean that the county saw the number of active gang members go from 931 to 1,117 in a year.
Police have not yet completed their gang task force report for the second half of 2007, but in their request for federal money, officials noted the northern parts of the county, which include Germantown and Gaithersburg, have seen a “significant increase” in Bloods and Crips membership.
