Metro goes gangbusters

Monday, June 25, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

The changing face of gang culture has found Metro Police using new tactics. They're getting to know their gangsters.

Chris Darcy, a sergeant in Metro's Gang Bureau, calls it "intelligence - led policing" - an effort to identify and arrest gangland's most active offenders through increased detective work and information gathering. It's a philosophical shift from the days of arresting criminals as you find them on the beat.

In March the Gang Bureau dedicated a small squad of officers to gathering intelligence on key players in the local gang scene. So far the bureau has identified 100 of the most active offenders and arrested 16 suspects .

Meanwhile, the number of gang-related homicides, shootings, stabbings and assaults has gone down from the same time last year. Gang-related homicides have cut in half from 22 gang killings by this time in 2006 to 11 so far this year.

"We're trying to focus our attention on those that need the attention," Darcy says. "The shot callers, the gang leaders."

Gang investigators have identified their top-offender suspects through different sources, some secret. Generally, Darcy says, informants offer insight, detectives ask around during the course of an investigation, and sometimes those arrested will squeal on their criminal cohorts.

The same names keep popping up at crime scenes and in conversations.

"We familiarize ourselves with their background and their history," Darcy said, "their friends and who is hanging out with who."

In recent years, Darcy says, gangs have defined themselves less and less with geographical regions, say, a certain street corner, and more according to loose allegiances; schools, cliques, acquaintances. Moreover, gang membership has become increasingly fluid. One person can belong to multiple gangs.

This has complicated things for police, who can no longer rely on merely patrolling a gang's claimed area to investigate its activities. Instead, detectives who want to monitor a gang have had to spend more time learning about its members, the "pedigrees" of gang leaders and their individual criminal histories, Darcy says.

In recent months, the Gang Bureau detectives have formalized their policy for gathering information after a gang shooting occurs: They visit the homes of every person involved, log a profile in their gang database, and generally let the offending individual know he is on police radar.

And lately, law enforcement officials have been getting together every week to compare gang notes. The Gang Bureau now has weekly meetings with Henderson and North Las Vegas police officers, Juvenile and Adult Parole officers, and police from Metro's Bolden Area command, considered the hub of gang activity.

More of the 100 identified active gang suspects can expect to be arrested in coming months, Darcy says.

"If they're wanting to get out of the lifestyle, we can help them with that," he said. "If they're hard - core gangsters, if they want to stay in the lifestyle, we can help them with that , too. We can put them in prison."