The club learned much about DeKalb’s gang activity during today’s presentation from the DeKalb Police Department’s Target Response Unit (or TRU). The team consists of officers Steve Parsons and Jason Goodwin. The team specializes in gangs and narcotics. In 2018, there were 457 gang-related arrests, of which 220 were felonies.
A gang, by their definition, consists of three or more people who have a unique name or identifiable organization and are actively engaged in an unlawful activity. Gangs are broadly defined as associatin with one of two factions, named the People Nation and the Folk Nation, who typically don’t get along, though there are signs that has begun to recently change. The officers employ many tactics to identify and track gangs and gang member activity, but rely heavily on social networks.
Some of the more prominent gangs in Dekalb include the Latin Kings, Gangster Desciples, Vice Lords, Ambrose, and Insane Deuces, though there are many more. By population, the Latin Kings and Ambrose are the largest. Many of their tactics rely on the recruitment of kids at a younger age because the system is usually more lenient with them than adults. The officers shared background information on the various gangs, including their associated hand signs, visual symbols, colors (including sports team associations), among other facts. For more information on gangs, you can visit Chicagogangs.org.
If someone suspects gang activity or sees gang-related graffiti in the public, they are encouraged to reach out to the officers at:
Officer Steven Parsons #33
Steven.parsons@cityofdekalb.com
Officer Jason Goodwin #55
Jason.Goodwin@cityofdekalb.com