Gang up on Thugs!
Gang up on thugs!
By RICHARD WEIR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, September 7th, 2005
Nassau police union officials called on the county yesterday to create a designated unit to target the growing threat of violent street gangs such as the Bloods and MS-13.
"We are falling behind the curve," said Gary DelaRaba, president of Nassau's Police Benevolent Association, demanding that police brass "make a commitment to put boots on the ground."
"Having a gang czar with no police officers attached to that seems to me to be nothing more than window dressing," Delaraba said.
DelaRaba criticized Police Commissioner James Lawrence for appointing a so-called gang czar last October, Inspector Robert Turk, but not supplying him with a squad of plainclothes cops dedicated to busting gang members.
"Having a gang czar with no police officers attached to that seems to me to be nothing more than window dressing," he said, suggesting that the department would need about 75 cops to adequately staff such a unit.
But Lawrence said his "multipronged approach" to combatting the gang problem has been effective, and resulted in increased arrests of gang members this year.
"You just don't do one thing and that's the end-all," Lawrence said.
He said his department has several precinct-based officers assigned solely to gang enforcement.
The 1st Precinct (including Hempstead, Roosevelt and Uniondale) has 24 officers devoted to investigating gang crime, while the 3rd Precinct (Westbury, Roosevelt Field and East Meadow) has about 10 officers.
The Special Operations Bureau's employs 16 officers each day as part of its an anti-gang strike force, officials said.
"They are the guys who put the boots on the street," responded Turk, whose official title is Task Force Against Gangs coordinator. "They have made a lot of arrests for me over the years."
The county police department also has headed up an anti-gang task force of precinct commanders, chiefs of village and city police departments, along with FBI agents and other federal and state agencies who meet monthly to review gang issues.
The department also plans to launch a new gang investigative unit with three supervisors and 12 detectives to "investigate gang incidents and build a pool of gang intelligence," Turk said.
So far this year, six of the 20 homicides in Nassau were gang related, compared with four of 17 from last year at this time. Lawrence said that police have made arrests in each of this year's gang-related killings.
He also said that the number of arrests of gang members for gun possession as of Aug. 8 had risen 11.5% this year over last, and that arrests of gang members for other weapons charges shot up 66%.
The number of total gang-related arrests rose 2% this year over last.
Posted Wednesday, September 7, 2005
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