By Joe Rodriguez
The Wichita Eagle.
Wichita, Kan. — A Wichita Police Department homicide detective acknowledged on Sunday that it can be easy to be in denial about gangs. Take, for example, the early 1990s, when gangs started to emerge in the city, he said.
“We had gang killings and we were calling the gangs ‘misguided youth groups,’ ” Detective Tim Relph said. “Let’s not ever do that again.”
Relph was one of several police officers and others who spoke Sunday at a community event, the 2007 Safe and Secure Seminar, which provided people with information, ideas and resources that they could use to help police make the community safer.
More than 225 people attended the seminar at St. Mark United Methodist Church, 1525 N. Lorraine.
The faith-based initiative was sponsored by five churches in partnership with Wichita Police, the YWCA and Wichita-Sedgwick County Weed and Seed Program.
“When we look at violence in the community, it is a community problem that is going to require community solutions,” Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams told the audience.
Sessions dealt with domestic violence, violent crime investigations, the church’s role in keeping kids out of gangs, recognizing gang symbols and signs, and why neighborhoods should care about violence.
In addition to the denial factor, Relph said there are three reasons gangs infiltrate neighborhoods: apathy, resignation and the fear of retaliation.
People should call police at the first sign of potential gang activity or any other type of crime, he said. And, he added, call repeatedly.
“No chop shop, no drug house, no prostitution operation has ever stood the test of time when under the constant scrutiny of citizens and the police,” Relph said. “We don’t care if you keep calling us, we will keep coming.”
And don’t believe that just because a gang is set up across the street or down the street, you don’t have to worry about them because they stick to their own business.
“Trust me: Their business is messy,” he said. “Once that bullet goes off, it doesn’t have an agenda, it doesn’t make sure that it hits a Blood (gang member).
“It goes in the geometric direction it was pointed.”
As with other crimes, Relph said, the community can make a difference. The key is not to be a good host to the “parasitic” gangs.
“We can make this problem go away,” he said.
Many speakers stressed the importance of public involvement.
“It is way past the time when we say, ‘What are the police going to do, what is the church going to do, what are community organizations going to do?,’ ” said the Rev. Lincoln Montgomery, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist. “It is now time to say, ‘What can I do?’ ”