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West
Trenton, N.J. – The New Jersey State
Police today released the 2010 Street Gang
Survey, the fourth such survey during the
last nine years. Street gang investigators
from around the state were queried to provide
a broad spectrum of knowledge which goes
well beyond census data for street gangs.
It sheds light on the influence gangs have
on the community around them, looks at questions
of size, organization, patterns of criminality,
and examines indicators of gang cohesion.
“I
am proud of our talented analysts and Street
Gang Unit members that have honed this intelligence
product to a razor’s edge. This survey
probes the collective law enforcement knowledge
to cut to the core of what gangs mean to
us all; what threats they pose and how their
behavior is trending,” said Colonel
Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New
Jersey State Police. “Its contents
are requisite information for any police
agency forming anti-gang strategy, but accessible
enough for any citizen concerned about the
phenomenon of street gangs,” he added.
According
to the latest findings, gangs do not appear
to have spread significantly throughout
the state, maintaining a presence in roughly
the same number of municipalities as they
did in the 2007 survey. The 2010 survey
revealed that gangs were present in both
urban and suburban municipalities, were
relatively small, and that few gangs engaged
in the dramatic and violent crime which
frequently brings them to the attention
of the public.
“Raising
awareness with the release of this survey
will benefit law enforcement and the public,”
said Attorney General Paula Dow. “While
each community may have a different set
of concerns, we all have a vital interest
in addressing the problem of street gangs.
Their negative influence transcends crimes
by spreading fear and intimidation. That’s
why gangs will remain the focus of concerted
law enforcement efforts and preventive initiatives
for the foreseeable future,” she said.
A
creative partnership with academia will
make this survey more user-friendly for
the average citizen. With assistance from
various computer science departments, we
developed ways to make this wealth of information
searchable through a number of student-designed
websites. Most of these projects continue
to move toward completion. The University
of Maryland has finished creating a website
hosting 2010 data under www.NJGangSurvey.com.
This site offers searches by gang name and
crime type. Other projects will feature
town specific searches. We are excited by
this partnership and the new dimensions
it will add to the product.
Major
Matt Wilson, Commanding Officer of the Intelligence
Section, lauded the depth of this survey’s
findings. “Analysts Dean Barata and
Peter Lynch, and a host of others, evolved
this survey into a tremendously important
intelligence tool for a variety of users,”
he said.
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