Like war, police work can be an ugly job. Like military service, it can be dangerous physically and psychologically. But who's better prepared to endure that crucible than our returning combat veterans?
June 5, 2013
In the long war between police gang fighters and the outlaw criminal gangs, gang defectors can be important and valuable allies. Unless someone in your team has the ability to recruit, cultivate, and utilize criminal informants, you're just functioning as procedural processors relying on chance to develop cases.
December 5, 2012
Every victim or witness had heard the stories in the ghetto about gang retaliation against those who were foolish enough to snitch on gang members. Most of these stories were only urban legends that grew with each telling. Some were absolutely true. Gangs do target witnesses.
November 7, 2012
No matter how small or large a town they work in, and whether they work urban or rural, gang cops need to know about and recognize the signs of criminal gang activity associated with national and international gangs.
October 2, 2012
The Mexican Mafia is composed of cell-like cliques united in a coalition under the umbrella name. These cliques or sub-groups are led by informal charismatic leaders who function under the overall gang structure. Sometimes the nature of this beast aids law enforcement gang fighters in delivering the critical blow.
September 21, 2011
If ending corruption is the real goal, let's apply all the regulations equally across the board. I can support mandatory financial disclosure for all gang-unit officers, if this attempt to ensure equal justice under the law is applied to all corruptible government employees equally.
February 8, 2011
If you're looking for good gang training, remember all gang training is not equal. Many of these sources suffer from poor curriculum and sub-standard instructors.
October 18, 2010
One must understand our adversary's history and motivation in order to predict his future activities. Real intelligence opens the mind to why and how the adversary thinks, so we might be proactive rather than reactive to his attack.
July 28, 2010
If you are a law enforcement administrator, consider multiplying your gang intelligence resources with a gang liaison officer or gang unit in the jail. If you are a gang officer working on the street, consider cultivating an in-custody officer to assist you in the jail.
July 8, 2010
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Curtis Jackson pioneered a different way to attack gangs. Instead of using "show of force" suppression patrols, Jackson relied on intelligent tactics.
April 26, 2010
Here are some law enforcement gang sources and authors that I would recommend. I am unable to list everyone because I only have a limited space. I tried to give a varied mix of more recent textbooks, non-fiction books, Websites, and blogs. I’m going to organize this alphabetically by author.
February 4, 2009
The gang investigator's years of experience, knowledge, and training in the field of gangs is of no value if he is unable to communicate this knowledge in such a way as to convince a judge or jury that this knowledge is truth.
April 11, 2008