Gang Intervention
The Division of Juvenile Justice in Anchorage and Fairbanks has continued its active role in the prevention, intervention, and suppression of criminal street gangs in those communities, especially as they involve juveniles.
As part of the Tri-Borough Mayor’s Task Force on Gangs and Youth Violence (Anchorage) and the Fairbanks Gang Task Force, DJJ has taken leadership positions on policy, truancy, and community justice sub-committees and workgroups. These multi-agency task forces are comprised of all levels of law enforcement have chosen to focus on prevention and intervention efforts.
Anchorage Juvenile Probation maintains its role with Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a project of the US Department of Justice that targets crimes of guns, gangs, and drugs. Anchorage Juvenile Probation also works with the Safe Streets Task Force, a collaborative effort of federal, state, and local law enforcement, in projects which target specific criminal activity in specific Anchorage neighborhoods. This office remains active in the community’s law enforcement response to gang issues by: assigning probation officers to work with Anchorage Police Department’s School Resource Officers in local schools; and taking part in weekly intelligence meetings where representatives of federal, state, and local law enforcement review each week’s gang-related incidents and share information about gangs.
In 2007, the DJJ was successful in securing federal funds through the OJJDP to develop and implement a gang prevention program in Fairbanks. The FY07 funding supports a Gang Prevention Coordinator who implemented and continues to facilitate the Fairbanks Gang Task Force, and collaborates with other agencies to increase training, streamline tracking of gang activity, develop and implement process and protocol for interagency communication, coordinate multi-agency response to address gang activity as well as other gang prevention activities. Additional federal funding is being sought to continue the Gang Prevention Coordinator position and and to complete an in-depth community assessment (based on the OJJDP model) of the gang problem in Fairbanks. This project targets high-risk youth ages 10-18, and serves the target area of the Fairbanks North Star Borough.
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