While gangs have been a concern in urban areas for decades, suburban gang activity is still relatively new.
According to 2008 analysis by the National Drug Threat Survey, jurisdictions reporting gang activity increased from 45 percent in 2004 to 58 percent in 2008.
In Kane County, street gangs have been around since the 1980s. Sheriff Pat Perez started his career in Kane working to stop gang activity and said there has been a noticeable downturn over the past couple of years.
The Republican spoke to Perez about local area gangs.
Q From the time you headed up the gang unit in 1997 to now, what kind of changes have you seen in gang activity?
A It’s been noticeably down the last two and a half years. There was a very concerted effort between the (Kane County) State’s Attorney’s Office, Aurora Police, the FBI and the Kane County Sheriff’s Office to conduct ... Operation First Degree Burn. We took down 33 Latin Kings on cold-case homicides. It was the first time in pretty much forever that we ... got gang members to testify against each other, because as you can understand people were reluctant to come forward.
Q Are there still a fair amount of gang members hanging around? What do they commonly do?
A They’re still gang members that are around. I don’t know that you’ll ever completely rid society of gangs or gang members, but we definitely have put a crimp in their ability to wage the wars that they did and (cause) the lack of safety in communities. For the most part, the biggest things they do, obviously drug dealing is their No. 1 source of income. Large-scale drug dealers will tap into gangs, because they know they have a (large) network already established. They use them as both muscle and distribution. Also thefts, burglaries, a lot of stealing that goes on, especially weapons. ... I would lump homicide in there too. A lot of what they enforce is through violence.
Q Do they leak into the Tri-Cities area at all?
A Of course. You’ve got the mobility of gang members coming west from Chicago, coming north from Aurora, coming south from Elgin and east from Rockford. There’s not a boundary. There may certainly be neighborhoods (that are) strongholds. One neighborhood could be a stronghold for the Gangster Disciples, another neighborhood a stronghold for the Latin Kings. ... (As for spray painting) opposing gangs will do that on other gangs’ turf and paint graffiti that’s, in their world, disrespectful to that local gang. That’s not as prevalent as it used to be. If you just pull the gang-related homicide rate in Kane since 2007, you’re going to see a drastic drop. I know when I first started in 1992 in Aurora, the first two or three years, Aurora alone averaged 25 homicides a year. I think last year, or the year before, Naperville and Aurora had the same homicide rate: Two people.
Q Is there an advantage to fighting gang activity in Kane versus Cook County or Chicago?
A I think it’s a little more difficult in Cook County. You have entire neighborhoods that are totally ethnically related. They’re not going to go over on their own. But if you watch the news, you’re starting to see people in the community starting to get to the point where they’ve had enough. ... Personally, I don’t think we should ever let up on it. The worst thing as law enforcement that we could do right now is lay down our arms. ... When you reduce it and you’ve got them down, they constantly evolve the same way we evolve. If you go by the same message they used 10 years ago, they’re not going to do that. They change the game.
