Enlightening police article on identifying and documenting gang members.
- Police Officers are the collectors of intelligence
- Field Interview (FI) cards are what they use to document
- FI cards then go to police gang investigators
- Police gang investigators make a determination
- Police gang investigators put individual's name in gang database
- Gang Databases are shared with other law enforcement agencies
- Gang Database data is used for obtaining local, state or federal funding for special units and operations.
If you get pulled over....
- Video tape your encounter
- Do not answer questions
- Do not allow pictures to be taken of you. Cover your face or exposed tattoos if need be, police can't make you no matter what they say.
- Do not consent to search
- Ask for the ticket (the reason why they pulled you over) so you can leave.
- Fill out the Motorcycle Profiling Survey
http://www.motorcycleprofilingproject.com/national-motorcy…/
Excerpts from the article...
Patrol officers are an essential source of gang information and usually make up the front line defense against gangs. Through field contacts and observations, they can supply confirmation of an individual's gang membership.
Filling Out the FI Card
A properly completed field interview (FI) card is like gold. It can be instrumental in officially documenting a street gang member or updating the status of a documented gang member or associate. But two things must occur for the information contained on an FI card to be of use.
First, an officer must take the time and initiative to fill out the FI card; secondly, the card must be accurately and completely filled out. The important part of conducting the field interview is to be as detailed as possible and note anything that may assist investigators with any follow up needed on the person in question.
Field interviews are the bread and butter of any gang investigator and most often an important part of an investigation. Not only do complete and accurate field interviews allow investigators to document gang members and their affiliates, they also provide information even when a person's gang affiliation cannot be verified.
Often field interviews are utilized to document as a gang member someone who has committed a crime. This retroactive gang documentation is often sufficient, but it is typically better to document the gang member at the time of the crime.
We have seen field interviews listing a person's crime potential as simply "gangs" without any indication of why the person has gang as a crime potential. In some cases there has been indication of a particular street gang. For instance, merely noting something similar to "Gangs Skyline" on an FI card with no supporting information is essentially useless to an investigator trying to document a person as being involved in a criminal street gang.
http://www.policemag.com/…/identifying-and-documenting-gang…
- Video tape your encounter
- Do not answer questions
- Do not allow pictures to be taken of you. Cover your face or exposed tattoos if need be, police can't make you no matter what they say.
- Do not consent to search
- Ask for the ticket (the reason why they pulled you over) so you can leave.
- Fill out the Motorcycle Profiling Survey
http://www.motorcycleprofilingproject.com/national-motorcy…/
Excerpts from the article...
Patrol officers are an essential source of gang information and usually make up the front line defense against gangs. Through field contacts and observations, they can supply confirmation of an individual's gang membership.
Filling Out the FI Card
A properly completed field interview (FI) card is like gold. It can be instrumental in officially documenting a street gang member or updating the status of a documented gang member or associate. But two things must occur for the information contained on an FI card to be of use.
First, an officer must take the time and initiative to fill out the FI card; secondly, the card must be accurately and completely filled out. The important part of conducting the field interview is to be as detailed as possible and note anything that may assist investigators with any follow up needed on the person in question.
Field interviews are the bread and butter of any gang investigator and most often an important part of an investigation. Not only do complete and accurate field interviews allow investigators to document gang members and their affiliates, they also provide information even when a person's gang affiliation cannot be verified.
Often field interviews are utilized to document as a gang member someone who has committed a crime. This retroactive gang documentation is often sufficient, but it is typically better to document the gang member at the time of the crime.
We have seen field interviews listing a person's crime potential as simply "gangs" without any indication of why the person has gang as a crime potential. In some cases there has been indication of a particular street gang. For instance, merely noting something similar to "Gangs Skyline" on an FI card with no supporting information is essentially useless to an investigator trying to document a person as being involved in a criminal street gang.
http://www.policemag.com/…/identifying-and-documenting-gang…