1997-011-RES WHEREAS, OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR, CRIMINAL JUSTICE DIVISION PLANNING FUND

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4b This department is depending on the funding provided from this grant to continue the work we have begun. Prior to receiving this grant, the City of Paris had no juvenile officer to work specifically on juvenile crime and gang activity. Recently, our Juvenile/Gang officer has begun working with the Lamar County District Attorney, County Judge, Sheriff, Chief of Police, and Juvenile Probation Department to secure a juvenile detention facility for the City of Paris and Lamar County. Currently, there is no such facility within an hour's drive of the City of Paris. Funding for the Juvenile Gang Officer's position is imperative so that such work may continue. Our Juvenile /Gang Officer correlates information pertaining to all criminal juvenile activity within the City of Paris and Lamar County. In 1996, the Juvenile/Gang Officer was sent to receive training in the G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education and Training) curriculum. Our local schools have embraced the thought of our Juvenile/Gang Officer teaching the G.R.E.A.T. Program to the student population of Paris, Texas. It is felt that this program will have a significant impact in deterring at-risk children from becoming involved in criminal juvenile gang activities. Since the development of gang identification criteria, we feel that we have a more realistic analysis of local criminal juvenile gang activities. We have been able to concentrate on juveniles who are actually engaged in criminal gang activity. We feel that we have a more accurate view of total gang membership as it correlates to reported criminal activities and juvenile arrests. This information, along with public feed-back, will help us to determine the effectiveness of this program. We believe the effectiveness of this program is evident in the statistical data previousty mentioned in this application. Last year's four hundred thirty-nine (439) juvenile arrests is significantly up from 1995's three hundredthirty-eight (338) juvenile arrests. This leads us to believe that the availability of a Juvenile/Gang Officer to specifically work in this area has led to more thorough investigations and a better service to our community. Additionalty there were one hundred twenty-eight (128) combined day and night curfew violations cited against juveniles in 1996. This statistic is down somewhat from the one hundred forty-three (143) violations cited in 1995. The development of gang criteria, also previously mentioned, has led to the identification of approximafely 85 hard-core gang members and approximately two hundred (200) fringe members/associates. This is consistent with 1995's eighty-five (85) reported hard-core gang members. Gang criteria was disseminated to all officers within the department. This is allowing us to develop a more accurate and realistic intelligence file on gangs and their memberships.