Cary using education to crack down on gangs

Cary, N.C. — The Town of Cary has a new section on its Web site, along with public service announcements, flyers and brochures to help educate the community about gang activity and prevention.

The measures followed the Town Council’s proclamation in support of gang-prevention measures, including declaring May as Youth Gang Awareness and Prevention Month.

“While we’ve been really fortunate to not have the level of gang-related problems common to so many communities our size, we do know that we have young people in Cary that are attracted to gangs,” said Police Chief Pat Bazemore. “Our goal is to use suppression, intervention and prevention strategies to address this issue now, before it becomes a much larger issue.”

Statistics show the number of people in Cary affiliated with gangs at just below 100, compared with an estimated 3,000 gang members in all of Wake County, 14,500 in North Carolina and 1 million nationwide. In Cary, 33 of the total 6,793 crimes reported in 2007 had some known link to gangs, which was down 33 percent from 2006.

The Town of Cary’s plan for gangs was developed by an intra-agency group. About 23 members of the Cary Police Department are working with the new gangs program.

If you think a member of your family might be in a gang or considering joining a gang, get help by calling the Cary Police Department at 919-469-4366 or Wake County ’s gang hotline at 919-256-0919.