What Can Communities Do To Combat Street Gangs

• Contact your local social and economic services (identified by some researchers as the most effective strategy) including special schools, training and job programs (especially critical for older street gang members who want to leave gangs); contact employment centres, youth employment centres, child and family services, municipal/provincial/federal government representatives.
  
• Social intervention (outreach geared toward mainstreaming fringe youth) work with local service groups to get kids off the streets e.g. Kiwanis Clubs.
  
• Gang suppression (contact police to report street gang activity in your neighbourhood without delay; report and remove graffiti in your neighbourhood).

 A community has the greatest success in combating street gangs when preventive measures are aggressively instituted before youth move beyond stage one. Stage two requires creative intervention measures.  However, in no community where street gangs have established firm roots have street gangs ever been eradicated.

How to keep street gangs out of your Community

Contact Hamilton Police about dangerous and/or illegal things you see.  This might include:

·         Graffiti

·         Houses or places with a high volume of either/both pedestrian or vehicular traffic at all hours of the day and night.

·         Groups of persons using alcohol or other drugs

·         Drug dealing

·         Groups of persons carrying weapons

·         Groups of persons controlling a specific neighbourhood

Get Involved

You can get involved by simply reporting illegal activities you may see.  Contact the Hamilton Police Service at 905-546-4925, Crime Stoppers at 905-522-TIPS or the graffiti hotline at 905-546-4723. Help give the message that street gangs will NOT be tolerated in your community.