The Frederick Police Department (FPD) is pleased to announce two major milestones in our continuing anti-gang strategy in the City of Frederick. The Frederick Police Department’s anti-gang strategy consists of an integrated, multifaceted response consisting of a multi-pronged approach to combat gangs through enforcement/community policing, education, prevention/outreach, and investigation/intelligence sharing. We believe that combating gangs must be a team effort not only from within the agency but through our partnerships with citizens, schools, businesses, prosecutors, and local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. In addition to arresting criminals, outreach, education, and prevention efforts are critical. We also believe that combating gangs is inextricably linked to combating an array of other, often related criminal activity, to include illegal drugs, certain violent crimes and property crimes, graffiti, prostitution and human trafficking, and terrorism.
Aggressive enforcement efforts as illustrated by the fact that the FPD continues to lead all county agencies in arrests, in fact generally making as many arrests as all other county agencies combined, are a key component of our strategy. As noted, however, prevention and outreach efforts are also critical. It is in these areas that two major milestones have been reached. The FPD has been a leader in aggressively making efforts to educate, inform, acknowledge, and discuss gangs in our community. To that end, in the past five years, the agency has presented more than ninety gang seminars in an effort to inform and educate our community about gangs, why people join gangs, how they operate, why they exist, and to discuss our anti-gang strategy in depth. These presentations have been given in a variety of venues including Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC) meetings, Homeowner Association meetings, Board of Realtors, schools, churches, etc. We are proud to acknowledge that our own Detective Robert Marker is recognized across the State of Maryland as a top resource when it comes to gang operations and information. A companion outreach effort includes our Gang Resistance Education and Training Program (G.R.E.A.T.), which we have been presenting to school children for about the past seven years. To date, this school based education program designed to teach children to withstand the lure of gangs has been presented to over three thousand Frederick school children.
The FPD will continue these strong efforts of enforcement/community policing, education, prevention, investigation/intelligence sharing, and outreach.
If you are interested in becoming involved in your Neighborhood Advisory Council meetings so that you can regularly meet with City officials, including members from the police department, or you are interested in requesting a seminar on gangs as part of our anti-gang strategy, please call Ms. Michele Bowman on 301-600-2091.
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