Gangs are involved in street violence, the drug trade and human trafficking.
SPRINGFIELD -- Behind many of the problems associated with cities -- violence, murder, robberies, prostitution and drugs -- are street gangs. That is not exactly a secret.
"Gang members are selling drugs. They are not selling Girl Scout cookies," said Nicholas Cotto. "Remember that."
Cotto, a police academy instructor and gang expert, led a day-long session Thursday at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for members on law enforcement on the issue of gangs. An estimated 250 police officers, sheriff's department officials, prosecutors and parole and probation officers from around New England were present.
Street gangs, whether they are neighborhood-based or have affiliations with regional or national organizations, are a major problem in cities of all sizes. Gangs, with members as young as 12 years old, are involved in the distribution and sale of drugs like heroin and cocaine. More recently, gangs have gotten involved in human trafficking, or the forcing of girls as young as 12 and 13 into prostitution.
The purpose of Thursday's conference was not only to talk about gang issues, but also to supply law enforcement agencies with tools to identify and track gang members, both on the street and in social media.
Cotto said it is important for law enforcement to look for intelligence, or intel, that provide clues about what gang members are up to.
"The whole point is to get everyone together. We're bringing all of law enforcement together to share intel," he said. "I want people leaving here today with 10 to 20 business cards for contacting afterward. We have to work together to deal with this problem."
Intel on gangs can come from many sources, he said.
He showed several slides that, to the untrained eye, looked just like typical urban graffiti. But Cotto, who has been studying graffiti for decades, said graffiti is like a newspaper or billboard to gang members. When one knows how to read it, it reveals information about hostilities among gangs and even tell if there will be a gang war.
He recommended that police departments find the resources to have officers continually monitor social media for gang activity. "Think of all the intel that's out there. Think of all the intel we're losing," he said.
Intel can also be found just by observing people's actions and behaviors in places where gangs are known to hang out. "It's important to understand the ground where you work," he said. "I always look for stuff in high-crime areas."
He used the example of Springfield during the school year.
"If you see someone on the streets in a school uniform during the day, they're skipping school. If you see a kid wearing the same clothes every day, he's probably homeless," he said. "And if you see a kid and every day he's dressed nice and in different gear, with a nice haircut and a new phone, he's making money on the side."
Cotto led the group through an exercise called "Box, hands, listen."
"Box" refers to a person's midsection, roughly the area of the belt line between the two pockets. Established gang members and run-of-the-mill street hoods are going to keep everything they value -- whether it's a stash of drugs, a knife or a gun -- in the box, Cotto said. It is the first place investigators should look when they approach someone.
Police are trained to carry a gun in a holster on the side of their dominant hand. Kids in gangs have no training with firearms beyond what they see in videos and movies and what they pick up from friends.
"I was at a conference of 600 drug enforcement from all over Northeast," Cotto said. "I asked if they had ever arrested a gang member with a gun in a holster on their strong side. No one raised their hand."
"Hands" refers to the signs and gestures that people in gangs flash to identify their allegiances, their enemies and the police. As he spoke, Cotto quickly moved his fingers in gestures commonly used by gangs like the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings.
When surveilling gang members, police need to know the hand gestures, and to know how to look for them. If a probation officer on a home visit finds a group of kids flashing hand signals, that means something, he said.
As for listening, Cotto said police in gang units, school resource officers and even social workers need to pay attention to nicknames. "Listen to how they call each other nicknames. Lito, Woo-Woo, Peanut. That's all intel," he said.
Cotto said whenever he talks to a kid, he asks for their nickname on the street. "Nicknames are very important to document," he said. Nicknames tell you who someone is on the street, and with whom they associate, Cotto said.
Gang violence "is the only thing that leaves me sleepless," Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said at the conference. Sarno said he has little sympathy for hardened gang members, calling them "rabid animals."
"I don't want to hear about excuses, that there's no opportunity," he said. "There's multiple opportunities for young people to do the right thing."
He spoke of consoling a family on Burr Street who a week ago had their house sprayed with gunfire. Police found 29 spent shell casings by the house.
Sarno said the shooting appears to be a case of mistaken identity: Members of one gang believed members of a rival gang lived there. The family "had nothing to do with gang life or gang violence. They're good, good people," Sarno said. "Yet they were terrorized and their home shot up."
Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi spoke of the importance of different aspects of law enforcement sharing information across departments, agencies and even jurisdictions.
The Hampden County House of Correction in Ludlow has a "zero tolerance" policy toward gang activity, he said, and there are jail staffers devoted to providing intel gathered there to area police departments.
It will take collaboration and teamwork to combat gang activity, Cocchi said.
"No one agency, no one person, no one city or town is going to solve it," he said. "But collectively we can all chip away at it."
