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Statewide Grand Jury Offers Anti-Gang Ideas

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By MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 15, 2008

A report released today on Florida's growing gang problem suggested lawmakers toughen sentencing guidelines and devote more money to protecting witnesses and anti-gang training for police and prosecutors.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and Statewide Prosecutor Bill Shepherd announced the first interim report of the 18th Statewide Grand Jury, a group formed last year to investigate gang activity.

"The grand jury has provided its recommendations, and we will take up this charge to protect our state and turn back the dangerous tide of these organized criminal operations," McCollum said.

The grand jury investigates gang activity and indicts individuals for crimes including drug trafficking, robbery and assault, and violations of the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization Act, or RICO.

The report's recommendations include better protecting witnesses by enhancing witness tampering statutes and closing a revolving door of automatic pre-trial bond releases, streamlining the legal definition of gang members to eliminate loopholes and updating the racketeering act.

"It is critical that we strengthen our enforcement capabilities and enhance penalties for gang members," Shepherd said. "By taking innovative approaches and maintaining a determined front against these criminals, we are taking back our state one arrest, conviction and sentence at a time."

In addition, the report seeks more training for police and prosecutors, and to ensure continued collection and sharing of criminal gang intelligence between agencies.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has documented about 115 gangs actively operating in the county, sheriff's officials said. At the start of January, about 235 gang members were in the county's jails, representing about 25 different gangs.

Jail operations manager Chuck Westbrook likes the idea of a central repository for gang information. He is a member of the sheriff's Security Threat Awareness Team, or STAT, a group of 20 deputies and civilian employees who monitor and register known gang members in the county's jails.

Law enforcement and corrections agencies collect gang information but are they are often unable to share it because they use different programs, Westbrook said.

"They don't talk to one another," Westbrook said.

The STAT unit's gang database information is regularly sent to the Florida Gang Investigators Association, which collects similar data from law enforcement agencies statewide.

The grand jury's report applauds police agencies and state attorneys who've previously won federal grants to pay for training and operations, but it suggested grants be supplements to and not a primary source of funding. The state should carry the larger burden of paying for this war, the report said.
Because Florida's budget is expected to see deep cuts in the next legislative session, any increase in funding to fight gangs would be a welcome surprise, said Sgt. Kenny Davis, supervisor of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office's anti-gang unit.

"We'd love to see it come along," he said. "If it truly is a priority to them then they will find the funding for it."

In conjunction with the report's release, the grand jury announced its first indictments. Ten members of the SUR-13 gang were charged with racketeering in December.

Officials say there are more than 1,000 gangs with an estimated 65,000 members active in the state.

"The effort to combat gangs must start in our communities and our neighborhoods and this report lays out the recommendations which will be essential to this all-encompassing effort," said Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson, president of the Florida Sheriffs Association.

Jurors also provide educational and prevention recommendations to law enforcement agencies, schools, churches and other community-based organizations to assist in keeping Florida's children safe.
The grand jury's report was released a day after the FBI released a national assessment report on Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13. Its members are mostly Salvadoran nationals or first generation Salvadoran-Americans.

Hillsborough is not considered a hotbed of activity for this gang, said FBI spokesman Dave Couvertier.
Davis said that in the last two years only two MS-13 members have been identified and arrested here.
"They have no presence here," Davis said. "They usually attempt to come in in ones or twos, but they just don't last long. Everybody takes notice when you mention MS-13."

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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