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Criminal Street Gangs are nothing new to public law enforcement, or private security. To public law enforcement, the criminal street gang is responsible for multiple serious criminal offenses, creating a network of violence and terror. From the Bloods to the MS-13, criminal street gangs carve a bloody path in their quests for territory, exclusive distribution of drugs, and domination of the areas they control.
To the clients who hire private security companies, criminal street gangs create and maintain huge losses to the client's profitability. In apartment complexes, they lower the average occupancy rate - people move from the complex fearing street gang violence. They increase loss through tagging (placing graffiti), destruction of client property, and paying out claims to resident/visitor property which is destroyed/defaced.
Clients hire private security companies to reduce loss. Many security companies will point to the gang problem and say, "This is a police concern." However, I am of the opinion that this is of an immediate concern for the private security company as the client suffers extreme and grevious loss from criminal street gang operations. Revenue from units is lost, management and maintenance personnel are attacked, public perception of the market value of the property is decreased, and residents who look to the client for a safe enviornment are let down - creating a litigious enviornment against the client.
Aggressive but sane methods can be employed to curb criminal street gang activity. Security Officers, in most states, are already given the tools to protect their clients, gather intelligence on criminal street gangs operating on/near their client's properties, interrogate and remove gang members through trespass statutes, and seek the removal of resident gang members through management eviction.
How can private security officers decrease client loss by aggressively targeting and requiring criminal street gangs to "give up" client territory, making them shift into the open streets where police have a better chance of doing detentions?
Several methods, such as the CCBPI Program (CIS CCBPI Program Info), address the problem of criminal street gangs in high risk residential communities. In all these programs, a concerted effort is needed to Identify, Interdict, and Maintain. The company, working with the police and the client must:
Identify the signs of criminal street gangs, their personnel, and their mission.
Interdict the operations of criminal street gangs on or near client properties through aggressive enforcement of client rules, private property laws, and criminal laws.
Maintain control of the property after successfully interdicting gang activity through actively patrolling, maintaining a high level of overt survelience targeted at gang activities, and enforcing quality of life rules/laws to prove to the residents the enforcement activity will "clean up" the area, and keep it clean.
The police can be instrumental, when properly approached, in identification, interdiction, and maintenance of the gang problem. Coordination with specialized gang and drug units, developing intelligence for police, security, and client use, and sharing of information between all three is paramount.
The client, as well, is instrumental. The police have the power to arrest, the security company has the power to remove non-residents, and the client has the power to evict residents. Any resident who uses their residence to engage in the manufacture, distribution, sale, or purchase of illegal drugs can be evicted under HUD rules in a Section 8 housing development. It violates most residential leases to associate with known drug dealers. These things, when properly documented and substantiated, can give the client the reasons they need to evict gang members from the property.
Seeking credible, court admissible, gang training for employees who work in high risk gang areas is also useful. Through this training, the employee can write reports based on their professional training and experience which are submitted to management, documenting gang activity. These are, of course, admissible as evidence in any subsequent criminal cases against the individual to build a history of gang activity. The key, of course, is to have the training credible by law enforcement gang standards. Several gang familarization or gang investigator courses are available to the general public - to aid law enforcement in recongizing and documenting gang activity.
I am interested in knowing how security officers recongize and identify gang activity on their properties, what damages the client sustains due to these gang activities, the methods used to interdict gang activity (and their outcome - success or failure), and the methods used to maintain client control of the property.
To the clients who hire private security companies, criminal street gangs create and maintain huge losses to the client's profitability. In apartment complexes, they lower the average occupancy rate - people move from the complex fearing street gang violence. They increase loss through tagging (placing graffiti), destruction of client property, and paying out claims to resident/visitor property which is destroyed/defaced.
Clients hire private security companies to reduce loss. Many security companies will point to the gang problem and say, "This is a police concern." However, I am of the opinion that this is of an immediate concern for the private security company as the client suffers extreme and grevious loss from criminal street gang operations. Revenue from units is lost, management and maintenance personnel are attacked, public perception of the market value of the property is decreased, and residents who look to the client for a safe enviornment are let down - creating a litigious enviornment against the client.
Aggressive but sane methods can be employed to curb criminal street gang activity. Security Officers, in most states, are already given the tools to protect their clients, gather intelligence on criminal street gangs operating on/near their client's properties, interrogate and remove gang members through trespass statutes, and seek the removal of resident gang members through management eviction.
How can private security officers decrease client loss by aggressively targeting and requiring criminal street gangs to "give up" client territory, making them shift into the open streets where police have a better chance of doing detentions?
Several methods, such as the CCBPI Program (CIS CCBPI Program Info), address the problem of criminal street gangs in high risk residential communities. In all these programs, a concerted effort is needed to Identify, Interdict, and Maintain. The company, working with the police and the client must:
Identify the signs of criminal street gangs, their personnel, and their mission.
Interdict the operations of criminal street gangs on or near client properties through aggressive enforcement of client rules, private property laws, and criminal laws.
Maintain control of the property after successfully interdicting gang activity through actively patrolling, maintaining a high level of overt survelience targeted at gang activities, and enforcing quality of life rules/laws to prove to the residents the enforcement activity will "clean up" the area, and keep it clean.
The police can be instrumental, when properly approached, in identification, interdiction, and maintenance of the gang problem. Coordination with specialized gang and drug units, developing intelligence for police, security, and client use, and sharing of information between all three is paramount.
The client, as well, is instrumental. The police have the power to arrest, the security company has the power to remove non-residents, and the client has the power to evict residents. Any resident who uses their residence to engage in the manufacture, distribution, sale, or purchase of illegal drugs can be evicted under HUD rules in a Section 8 housing development. It violates most residential leases to associate with known drug dealers. These things, when properly documented and substantiated, can give the client the reasons they need to evict gang members from the property.
Seeking credible, court admissible, gang training for employees who work in high risk gang areas is also useful. Through this training, the employee can write reports based on their professional training and experience which are submitted to management, documenting gang activity. These are, of course, admissible as evidence in any subsequent criminal cases against the individual to build a history of gang activity. The key, of course, is to have the training credible by law enforcement gang standards. Several gang familarization or gang investigator courses are available to the general public - to aid law enforcement in recongizing and documenting gang activity.
I am interested in knowing how security officers recongize and identify gang activity on their properties, what damages the client sustains due to these gang activities, the methods used to interdict gang activity (and their outcome - success or failure), and the methods used to maintain client control of the property.
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