In 2006, a couple of Garfield County Sheriff’s Office Detention Deputies began to notice the increasing amount of inmates with what looked to be gang related tattoos.  The deputies began to log and track any gang related information they could discover as well as educate themselves in regards to gangs and their history.  The community has more and more been faced with increasing gang related activity to include: home thefts, auto thefts, vandalism, gang initiations, a.k.a. jump-ins, and personal attacks on citizens by groups of youth.  Our public schools have also begun to see gang related activity, causing for the implementation of new policies indicating zero tolerance for any gang related activities.  All this has led to the creation of our recently implemented Threat Assessment Group (TAG).  In its first month, the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office TAG validated 45 gang members and 4 associates, within the jail facility alone.  The TAG has already conducted many interviews with validated gang members who have relocated to our county from bigger areas like, Los Angeles and Sacramento, California and Chicago, Illinois.

The TAG consists of 6 Garfield County Sheriff’s office employees to include 3 deputies from the jail, 1 sergeant, and 2 deputies from the patrol division.  Only 2 of these deputies are assigned to TAG full time.  The others serve more as information gatherers. The Garfield County Sheriff’s office is fully confident that the TAG will be successful in accomplishing established goals.  All together, the TAG members hold more than 40 years of experience in law enforcement, to include both detentions and patrol.  The entire Garfield County Sheriff’s Office and surrounding law enforcement agencies are in support of and doing whatever is needed to help the TAG.

The Garfield County TAG has designed an educational and interactive power point presentation and has presented it to community groups within the county.  The TAG has received positive feedback from these presentations, to the extent of community members previously seeing a “SUR X3” spray painted on a school trashcan and not giving it a second thought, to now being aware of what this actually means.  Tag is in the process of scheduling more presentations in other areas of the county and has had the presentation translated to Spanish language.  These presentations will educate the community on what to look for and how to respond to gang activities and or suspicions.  They will also open up an opportunity for community members to interact with law enforcement and form a union with the common goal of combating gang activity.

What Should a Parent Do?

The first defense in protecting our kids against gang influence is a good offense. Just as we should warn our kids against the dangers of smoking, alcohol or drugs before we discover evidence of such activity, we should take similar precautions and talk to our children about the dangers of gang involvement.  We must make our children aware that gang association of any kind is harmful and will not be tolerated. That gang involvement only leads down a bad road. They need to hear it from their parents and they need to know where their parents stand.

• Schools should not allow gang style clothing, colors, or gang signs and symbols to be worn or displayed on school grounds. A “Zero tolerance” policy has been adopted by many school districts.
• Address any gang issues immediately!  Do not let them fester.
• DO NOT supply or encourage “turf” or certain areas for certain groups or individuals. Any group that claims or patrols an area should be broken up immediately and not allowed to return.
• Don’t be afraid to call the Police Department. If a situation is out of hand or there are any weapons CALL 911!
• Continued education & training to increase your knowledge of gangs. Our community, without some knowledge as to how to identify gangs, will not recognize the signs of gang activity and therefore lose a valuable tool; a tool or aid that not only will assist in communications and interactions with the students, but with other educators, parents and law enforcement.

Contact

If you have any non-emergent concerns regarding gang activity or would like to contribute information regarding gangs, please contact:

Sergeant Jason Alstatt
Threat Assessment Group
107 8th Street
Glenwood Springs, CO  81601
[email protected]
Office:  (970) 945-0453 ext. 5303

You may also contact the confidential CrimeStoppers line at (970) 945-0101 to report any gang information you are aware of while remaining anonymous.

FOR ALL EMERGENCIES CONTACT 911