We have had a gang problem in northwest suburban Cook County for more than 10 years. We haven’t yet had a drive-by shooting committed by a carload of teenage girls, but we have definitely seen an increase in gang activity. Rather than pretending it isn’t happening, or saying it isn’t “our” problem, let’s admit that all our kids are at risk. Let’s pool our resources and fight this problem together.
Other communities have successfully used a mobile police force that crosses several suburban boundaries, using a very effective regional approach. Elgin has developed an aggressive system involving the police department, the city administrators, the parks department, the U.S. Department of Immigration, the U.S. Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Drug Enforcement Agency to combat gang activity on all fronts.
Teen peer juries are already being used with great success in several suburban areas to deal with a number of juvenile cases. In fact, state Rep. Carolyn Krause (R-Mt. Prospect) sponsored a bill during the last legislative session that would have created a statewide teen peer jury system. The Police Neighborhood Resource Center in Rolling Meadows is another example of a full community effort to eliminate gang activity by getting at some of its causes. The Northwest Suburban Mothers Against Gangs is currently working to establish a drop-in center for youth at the Whispering Winds Apartment complex in unincorporated Arlington Heights.
Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, why not begin to use some of these ideas to address the growing gang activity in our area?
