KELSEYVILLE — A gang awareness town hall meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church will present a forum for parents, educators and community members to teach about the signs of gang activity and gang prevention in the community.
Hosted by the newly-formed Lake County Gang Task Force, comprised of members from the Lakeport Police Department, California Highway Patrol (CHP), Lake County Sheriff”s Department and the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commission, the town hall features experts in the field from within the county and neighboring Sonoma County, where gang problems are more widespread.
Speaking are Katherine Rose of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commission, Lakeport Police Department Detective Norm Taylor, CHP Officer Mike Humble, Robinson Rancheria Executive Director Annie Barnes, Juvenile Commission Judge Vincent Lechowick and an officer from the Sonoma County MAGNET (Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Team) program, a gang suppression program Lake County gets information from, according to CHP Officer Adam Garcia, emcee of the event.
While gang involvement in the county has increased, now is the crucial time for education and intervention to suppress its growth and recruitment of new members while numbers are still small, according to Lakeport Police Department Detective Norm Taylor.
Taylor began working on gang prevention in 1992. “I”ve worked on the gang we”ve dealt with in Lakeport since the members first arrived,” Taylor said.
He will be giving a presentation on the history of gangs in the county and gang culture at tonight”s meeting. His training includes law enforcement sessions and reading up on documents about gangs written by professionals outside law enforcement. And Taylor has learned insider information from gang members he”s met on his police beat.
Increasing gang activity was the topic of a presentation to the Lake County Board of Supervisors in December. At the meeting Taylor said an estimated 100-plus gang members are known to be active in the county. But as documentation of members continues with the gang task force”s contacts on the streets, that number is expected to be “quite a bit more,” Taylor said. “That number is very conservative,” he added.
Taylor told the board there are more than 500 known gang members in Mendocino County, an estimated 700 in Napa County and more than 2,000 in Sonoma County.
He said both of the two prominent Latino street gangs have “initial roots” in the California state prison system, and that it was “the release of those prisoners” that resulted in street gangs.
“When assigning race to a gang, people get uneasy?although they may be Latino in general description, numbers often contain white, American Indian and African American people in their membership.”
Recruitment into gangs occurs typically in the early ?teens, he said, with membership usually between the ages of 14 and 25.
Taylor said the county”s task force has not sought to evaluate gang prevention methods in counties with similar demographics to Lake County”s because such gang programs typically don”t exist. “We”re looking to our neighbors Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma that do have gang programs in place.”
He said the gang problem in the county is “somewhat early on,” and because there are low numbers of gang members, “we”re at a position where we can make a large difference in their ability to get established, and being able to get programs going that will make a big difference in how they get established.”
Kelseyville High School Principal Matt Cockerton said he planned to attend the town hall along with school resource officer Vern Huggins. “We”re going to exchange information and gather information,” Cockerton said, who added the school experiences gang activity in “waves” and that “right now there”s some going on and we”re aware of it and keeping our eyes on it?in Lake County in general is seems to be on the up-rise.”
Cockerton said gang-related graffiti is seen “from time to time” and bandanas are a trend, but the school has “found in the past when we change our dress code, the gangs change their dress. They follow the code as much as we do?colors are always an issue. We try to stay ahead of it through use of attire expectations and board policy.” School uniforms have not been discussed at this point, he said.
To address gang concerns, Kelseyville High School has three counselors on-site, a resource officer and staff members keeping tabs. “Staff members are key. They”re out on the front line, gathering information, and we follow up on it,” Cockerton said.
The town hall is located at the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church at 5430 Third Street in Kelseyville, from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight. English-to-Spanish translation will be available. Refreshments will be served.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com.
