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r JAN 319994 BOOK 91 P,iGE6?2-7 Officer Gage estimated that we have 18 to 20 gangs and cult groups in the county and they range in size from 5 or 10 to 50 members. There are many groups which are not classified as gangs. He described the cults or skinheads as groups which follow a belief system. By Florida Statute, the term "gang" refers to groups which meet certain criteria, usually involving illegal activities ranging from vandalism and scrawling graffiti, to enforcement (paying someone to "hit" someone), to selling drugs and stealing cars, to burglaries and strong-armed robbery. The entire community must focus on the problem of gangs because some gang members are students but many of them are not enrolled in school. Officer Gage judged that the percentage of troubled juveniles involved in alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and cigarettes is very high. He further reported that whereas these problems in the past involved students in grades 7, 8 and up, now we are arresting and placing in intervention programs students in grades 4, 5, and 6. He predicted that these juveniles will continue this behavior through their entire school career and beyond school, and when they are over 18 years old, we will have to deal with them in the adult criminal justice system. Commissioner Eggert cited her experience in working with the Alcohol Drug Abuse and Mental Health Planning Council for HRS, and she stated that there has been conversation about the need for early intervention but no coordinated program has been developed. Commissioner Macht led discussion about parental accountability because youngsters are dropped off by their parents in areas like the theater and the mall and left without supervision, and they are subject to all types of unpleasantness. Officer Gage agreed there is lack of parent participation. He described law enforcement operations near the theater where youngsters 11, 12 and 13 years of age are dropped off by their parents or guardians, and the youngsters do not go into the theater. They hang around for a while, older teens pick them up, give them alcohol and drugs, take advantage of them and drop them off again later. Law enforcement has attempted to intervene but it still goes on because there is no supervision. We are not able to begin early intervention because law enforcement, schools, HRS and other agencies each keep their records confidential. We need correlation of all that information with better communication between the agencies which work with youth. We are starting a community-based project involving parents to address truancy. The plan is for cooperation between the schools and law enforcement to pick up truants, because a lot of crimes such as burglaries and vandalism are committed by truants. 6 � r �