Baltimore has about 2,600 known gang members and 170 criminal street gangs, according to a new report from the Baltimore City Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee.
“The same areas that have clusters of gang members are the same areas that have clusters of shootings and homicides,” said James Green, the Baltimore Police Department?s director of special projects.
The Baltimore City Gang Violence Reduction Plan, released at Wednesday?s CJCC meeting, is a comprehensive attempt to tackle the city?s gang issue.
The plan lays out the gang problem in troubling terms:
» Police have identified 400 Bloods and 100 Crips operating in Baltimore;
» More than half of gang members are under the age of 25;
» There are more than 50 gangs with about 500 members in city high schools and an additional 500 gang members in middle and elementary schools;
» About half of all gang members from state jails and prisons are released into Baltimore.
To combat the problem, the plan calls for increased opportunities and social interventions for youth; increased penalties for gang members who possess and use firearms; standardized reporting of gang members across area police and sheriff departments; better relations between the police and the community; and improved re-entry services for incarcerated people, among other initiatives.
Arianne Spaccarelli, a member of the plan?s steering committee and a policy analyst for the Baltimore City Health Department, said officials are going to be stressing “disciplinarian life skills” to potential gang members.
But at least one member of the CJCC thinks the gang problem in Baltimore is not as bad as it?s made out to be.
“I don?t know if it?s as serious as they say it is,” said Frank Conaway, clerk of the Baltimore City Circuit Court. “I?m out on the streets all the time, morning to night, and I just don?t see it.”
Conaway said he also took issue with the report?s findings that 94.2 percent of known gang members are black.
“It?s almost unbelievable,” he said. “There are no other gangs in the city other than African-Americans? How do you really know who?s a member in a gang, anyway? Who?s going to get arrested and say, ?Well, I belong to a gang?? ”
Green, a member of the plan?s steering committee, said police gather their data on gang members from informants and admissions.
“This can?t be a document that gathers dust,” he said of the plan. “Now, we have to do something with it.”
