Panel: Gangs target tweens

Gang prevention programs need to start in elementary school instead of junior high or high school.

That's because gangs begin targeting kids as young as 7 and 8, an Elgin panel has found.

The city formed the Street Gang Prevention and Intervention Committee last fall after a series of shootings in August that left several wounded and two dead.

The committee -- a mix of public officials, the police department, Elgin Area School District U-46 leaders, clergy and neighborhood groups -- will report its findings Wednesday night to the Elgin City Council.

Some of their other suggestions include:

• Establishing a permanent gang prevention task force.

• Educating parents early and aggressively.

• Partnering with U-46 and other agencies to create more intervention programs.

• Demolishing blighted buildings to create more park space.

• Recruit more Hispanic officers for the police department's gang unit.

About 54 percent of Elgin's 1,088 documented gang members are Hispanic, but none of the nine officers in the gang unit are, the panel said.

Juan Figueroa, a member of the city council and task force, said he believes all of the recommendations -- except for recruiting more Hispanic officers -- are short-term goals.

"I think every recommendation made by the committee addresses different gaps or needs," he said.

City Manager Femi Folarin said the city is working to restart intervention programs like the ones held at God's Gym before they were shut down in February.

Any programs at the Eastside Recreation Center, now operated by the city, must have quantifiable results, he said.

"We have to do it in a way we can measure its effectiveness and how well it's working," Folarin said.

Police Chief Lisa Womack said the task force's most important function was to bring people together and take an inventory of what the city, community groups and others were doing -- and not doing -- to prevent gangs.

Womack declined to say whether she agreed with the recommendation for more Hispanic officers on the gang unit.

"We do everything that we can to place the most competent, qualified officers in all units," she said. "Putting more emphasis on prevention and intervention is what I would like to see."