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Fighting Gangs Takes Cooperative Effort (Rep. Jerry McNerny)

Fighting the hold gangs have on many of our young people is absolutely essential to establishing safe and prosperous neighborhoods in our cities. This effort to control and reduce gang activity will take a comprehensive program with cooperation at the local, state and federal levels. Recent successes in cracking down on gang activity in San Joaquin County, illustrate how effective cooperation governmental agencies can be.

The creation of a National Gang Activity Database will ensure that law enforcement officials from all different jurisdictions have the capability to share pertinent, current information.

With at least 84 gangs being tracked in the city of Stockton alone, and hundreds more in the state of California, information sharing is critical.