Florida Gang Reduction Strategy 2008 - 2012

at-risk youth. They contemplate a program being
developed statewide or in a community or region
to communicate to these at-risk youth the message
that gangs are undesirable to belong to. In
order to develop and deliver the proper message,
prevention/intervention organizations and community
leaders must study and thoroughly understand
the motivational forces involved in gang
membership and what makes gang membership
appealing to youth. Then using this information
the image of gang membership must be portrayed
to these youth as something they would not want
to be a part of.
The remaining three prevention/intervention objectives
concern providing constructive, educational
and entertaining alternatives to gangs for at-risk
youth. Since most youth recruited into gangs are
missing some essential elements of family and
community, these objectives include making up
for what is missing as much as possible, and instilling
hope and opportunity in those youth and
a sense that they can dream big dreams and make
them come true. While there are many prevention/intervention
programs for at-risk youth, the
objectives focus attention specifically on those
at-risk youth in the community most likely to be
recruited by gangs.
Law Enforcement Objectives:
Objective 1: Compile a statewide priority list and
target every major criminal gang in
Florida for dismantling by arresting
and prosecuting gang leaders and
key gang members.
Objective 2: Identify and target for arrest and
prosecution all gang kingpins in
Florida and seek life imprisonment
sentences.
Objective 3: Prioritize the prosecution of gun
crimes related to gangs and gang
members and target for prosecution
those who provide guns to
juvenile gang members ineligible
to own or possess a gun.
Objective 4: In areas of intense gang activity,
build community policing, remove
The Strategy
firearms from low to mid-level
gang members and use injunctive
powers to prohibit gang members
from gathering.
Objective 5: Improve intelligence gathering and
information sharing on gangs and
gang members and their activities
among and between federal, state
and local law enforcement, prosecuting
authorities, schools and
Juvenile Justice, Corrections, and
Children and Families officials.
Objective 6: Strengthen gang law enforcement
and prosecution with more
uniform, specialized training and
designate one Assistant State
Attorney in each judicial circuit
whose sole, full-time responsibility
is to prosecute and manage the
prosecution of gangs, gang members
and gang-related crimes.
Objective 7: Coordinate federal, state and local
law enforcement/prosecution efforts
toward the common objective
of combating gang activity in
Florida, including setting priorities
and targeting certain gangs, gang
activities and gang-related prosecutions
all over Florida.
With over 1,500 criminal gangs and thousands of
gang members in Florida who engage in criminal
activities across many jurisdictional boundaries,
law enforcement efforts to suppress criminal
gangs more effectively will require enhanced
coordination, targeting, prioritization and aggressive
approaches. The law enforcement objectives
in this strategy are designed to accomplish this, and
in conjunction with prevention/intervention community
efforts to stop the growth of gangs, reduce
their number and the number of gang members and
ultimately render them ineffectual.
The objectives contemplate a statewide effort
to prioritize dismantling gangs. This is not a
central command and control effort. It must be
a cooperative effort among all law enforcement
agencies, federal, state and local. To be successful,
the strategy requires identifying, arresting and
prosecuting key gang leaders in all targeted gangs
Florida Gang Reduction Strategy 11