BOISE, Idaho — Many law enforcement agencies across the Treasure Valley have said they see a rise in gang-related crimes and that includes the Boise Police Department.
Boise police said they have had an official unit focused on gang-activity in the past, and they re-formed that unit after seeing a rise in gang-related crimes.
Boise police established a gang unit in 1993, but as of 2021 the unit was disbanded.
"Even to the untrained eye, you could see that there was an element of people claiming gangs, claiming areas, we have areas of the city that people were trying to claim,” Boise Police Corporal Brian Holland said. “That's unheard of in the city of Boise."
Holland said in the past couple years the department has seen a rise in gun possession, violent crime, gang fights and multiple shootings. "Especially in our juvenile realm, that was alarming for us," Holland said.
As a result, officers came up with the idea of bringing back a gang enforcement team in March and was officially made a temporary position for five officers in May.
This team works off of the Idaho Criminal Gang Enforcement Act, "to identify gang members, document the gang members and get aims and then to apply appropriate sentencing enhancements and, and applicable charges," Holland said.
Holland said the difference between this new unit and the old one is the old group was an investigative unit and this new unit focuses more on street level interaction.
"We're dealing with people face to face, we're doing street level investigations, we're doing documentations, just like we would in a gang unit," he said. "We have identified upwards of 60 potential gang members, we have identified two new gangs in Boise and we have documented anywhere from 20 to 30 people under the Idaho state code."
According to Holland, the next steps for this temporary gang unit is establishing it as a permanent team.
"I'm looking to have an investigative unit that specifically works, gangs, organized crime that we can funnel that information to, and they create larger cases with that," he said.
He added that without this gang unit things could get worse.
"We need the gang enforcement team on patrol, we need to investigative gang unit and I think that keeps our streets non territorial, that's huge,” he said. “You give up territory to a gang. We don't get it back."
Many other agencies like Meridian police and Caldwell police have an official unit that focuses on gang activity, and they said that it is very important to have a group like this. It helps prevent this problem from rising and to be able to work with other agencies effectively.
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