The Public Safety Committee of the Nassau County Legislature held a public hearing last week to hear testimony related to problems associated with increasing gang activity in communities throughout Nassau County.

Although the Public Safety Committee is usually chaired by Legislator Joe Scannell (D-5 L.D.), Legislator Patrick Williams (D-1 L.D.) chaired the hearing since Williams has taken an active role against gang activity in the county. The legislature listened to testimony from 1st Precinct Inspector Anthony Rocco as well as Nassau County detectives and a former gang member who grew up in Hempstead.

One of the messages that came out of the hearing is that gang activity is a problem for all communities. "When we started the idea of having a hearing, we were erroneously going to limit it to minority affairs thinking it was a minority issue. Once we started doing the analysis and developing the data, we realized that this is pervasive not only in Nassau County, but throughout the country. It's not just a black and white issue," Williams said.

"As in many of society's ills, people tend to believe that these things will not occur in their particular communities. However, as we've seen, gang proliferation can occur at any place at any time," said Nassau County Legislator Vincent Muscarella (R-8 L.D.).

Anthony Rocco, Inspector of the Nassau County Police Department's 1st Precinct, defined gangs as "three or more individuals gathered together for illicit or criminal purposes."

According to Nassau County Detective Lieutenant Matthew Brady of the Special Investigations Squad, the squad requires a minimum of 12 indicators to identify gang members. They are self-admission of gang membership, tattoos, style of dress consistent of gang membership, possession of gang graffiti on personal property or clothing, use of hand signs or symbols associated with gangs, reliable informant that identifies a person as a gang member, associates with known gang members, prior arrests with known gang members, crimes consistent with gang activity, statements from family members indicating gang membership, other law enforcement agencies identifying suspect as gang member, attendance at gang functions or known gang hangouts and being identified by other gang members.

According to data available at the hearing, which citing statistics collected by the Nassau County Police Department, there were 286 gang-related arrests in 1999. It took only eight months in 2000 to report 323 such arrests.

For the year 2000, the number of gang incidents in Nassau County was broken down by community by Detective Lieutenant Brady. There were:

* 20 percent in Hempstead

* 10 percent in Uniondale

* 10 percent in Roosevelt

* 10 percent in New Castle/Westbury

* 8 percent in Freeport

* 5 percent in Baldwin

* 4 percent in Hicksville

* 3 percent in Levittown

* 3 percent in Elmont

Detective Lieutenant Brady said it is estimated that there are 1,600 gang members in Nassau County, although number varies from week to week because of the transient nature of gangs.

"I think no community is safe and as a parent with a high school and middle school child, it is certainly something that is a concern to me and is a concern to me as a parent and as a legislator in the district," said Muscarella, whose district encompasses Bellerose, part of Floral Park, Garden City, Garden City South, Malverne, part of West Hempstead and part of North Valley Stream.

While it appears gang activity is on the rise, it was concluded at the hearing that making arrests is not the sole solution to solving the gang problem. Some of the discussion revolved around methods to prevent children from joining gangs since teens as young as 13 become members of gangs.

"Intervention is definitely the way to go," said Williams. "You try to get these kids before they think about joining gangs."

The budget crisis in Nassau County, however, has taken its toll on youth groups since organizations that receive funding from the county took a hit when funding was cut. Youth groups provide activities that may give adolescents a sense of belonging so that they don't feel the need to join a gang. "One of the things we were trying to examine is why kids gravitate towards gangs. There is a need in our society for people to feel a part of something. By joining some gang, that replaces a traditional family," Williams said. However, these gangs are involved in illegal activity.

Legislator John Ciotti (R-3 L.D.) said he believes peer pressure plays a part in teens joining gangs. Inspector Rocco said most gang activity stems from the home. "If parents or guardians do not know where their children are and what their children are doing or do not have an interest in what their children are doing from the time they are small, by the time we get them in high school, it's very difficult to turn someone away from the path they've chosen," he said.

Legislator Williams believes a solution to increasing gang activity in Nassau County is getting all aspects of a community involved in an education push, from parents to schools, civic groups, lawmakers and religious leaders. "Preventing a problem such as gang violence is always preferable to dealing with it after it occurs. The difficulty lies in recognizing the root causes of gangs and how we deal in providing our young people with the necessary activities to allow them to ignore the existing gangs and prevent getting involved in gangs," said Legislator Muscarella.

He said gathering information at last week's legislative hearing was a healthy beginning to curbing gang activity on Long Island. "The challenge is to build on it. We certainly have to go to the communities, work with law enforcement and the clergy," Williams said. "All of those individuals and organizations have an integral role to play in avoiding this problem of gang violence."

"I thought it was a very important pubic hearing. The increase in gang activity countywide is certainly a concern to all of us. The hearing tended to help in identifying some of the causes and indicators of gang violence and gang membership and I think that by focusing on the causes and identifying, perhaps we can prevent the escalation from becoming a serious problem in the county," Muscarella said. "The legislature needs to be mindful and to encourage community organizations, school district policies and police programs to provide an integrated effort to coordinate and to reach our young people as early as possible about the problems of gangs and gang violence."

Although many legislators showed their concern by attending the hearing and asking questions, Legislator Williams set up the hearing since he feels communities within the county must deal with gang activity before it escalates further.