After months of talking about ways to curb Hollister’s
burgeoning gang problem, city officials put that talk into action
this week with a Web site devoted to the city’s gang problem.
The site, located on the city of Hollister’s main Web site, was
a solution suggested by a community member during a community gang
meeting in April, said Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller.
Hollister – After months of talking about ways to curb Hollister’s burgeoning gang problem, city officials put that talk into action this week with a Web site devoted to the city’s gang problem.
The site, located on the city of Hollister’s main Web site, was a solution suggested by a community member during a community gang meeting in April, said Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller.
Because the set-up and maintenance are nearly no cost to the city and it includes a host of resources, tips, brochures and other pertinent information concerning gangs in Hollister, the site was a perfect way to kick off actual implementation of community members’ ideas to curb gang activity and violence, Miller said.
“It’s a clearinghouse,” Miller said. “There are a lot of resources available that people aren’t aware of, and we’ll be adding more to it. This is just the starting level.”
And the Web site’s inception comes at a time when police have noticed increased gang presence and violence, Miller said.
“Anecdotally, we seem to have experienced a rise in gang activity in the past month, month-and-a-half,” Miller said. “There’s more graffiti, we’ve had some drive-by shootings and fights.”
The Web site can be accessed by scrolling down the city’s main Web page and clicking on a box on the right-hand side entitled Gang Task Force Advisory Board. Included on the site are tips for parents on how to recognize if their child is becoming involved with gangs, what to do and who to call if someone is deeply ensconced in the gang life and what the community can do as a whole to combat gang activity.
Officials decided to put the site on the city’s main Web site instead of the police department’s site to drive home the point that this is not just a police problem, Miller said.
“We’re trying to emphasize that this is a community problem,” Miller said, “and there needs to be a community solution.”
Although the last community gang meeting was months ago, Miller said officials held off on holding one over the summer because many people were out of town for summer vacation. A future meeting hasn’t been scheduled, but Miller said board members will most likely set a date during their meeting at the end of September.
Miller said the meeting will focus on resources available to implement the other solutions community members discussed at the April meeting – which also included initiating an anonymous hotline to report gang violence without the fear of retaliation, starting up mentoring programs for at-risk children and sending out flyers to parents to better educate them about gangs and ways to stop young children from entering into the gang lifestyle.
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or
em*******@fr***********.com
