NCJ Number
149245
Date Published
1993
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This document informs police officers about the characteristics and activities of prevalent street gangs and suggests ways of investigating members.
Abstract
At present, the major black gangs include the Crips, the Bloods (or Pirus), and the Black Gangster Disciples (BGD's) who are heavily involved in drug trafficking. Latino/Hispanic gangs are usually most interested in controlling and protecting their territory, while the Skinheads, a white hate group, perpetrate racially motivated crimes. Asian street gangs seem most preoccupied with crimes that make money and often have ties to Asian organized crime. Street gang members are predominately males from 12 to 25 years of age; they can be identified by their gang specific clothing, their use of aliases and tattoos, possession of pagers or cellular phones, and possession of large sums of money. In addition, frequent flights of gang members to drug source areas, especially with little luggage, suggest gang involvement in drug dealing. To combat street gangs, police officers must develop gang expertise and use this expertise to establish probable cause for an arrest. The document includes detailed police procedures for making contact with gang members, intelligence gathering, interviewing individual gang members, making arrests, and following up on gang investigations. Listings of common street gang slang and local gangs and their neighborhoods are appended.