Why is a Gang Database beneficial at a Correctional Facility / Jail?
The simple answer is that there are undervalued gang intelligence in the prison systems that may go undocumented.
Local Law Enforcement teams have made a strong effort to convict high-level gang members, which now allows regional correctional facility intelligence officers to have even greater opportunities in dealing directly with some of the most high-ranking leadership members of gang groups. These gang leaders are unique in that they don’t stop committing crimes because they are in prison, and have been known to wield control, both inside and outside of the facility. This makes the intelligence that a correctional officer can get, extremely beneficial. Just from speaking to the few jail administrators, we have met with, it is unbelievable the amount of gang intelligence available in a custodial setting that is not getting saved.
Why is it important to capture, document and share intelligence?
- Officer Safety – Understanding gang membership and past allows for much safer engagement
- Violence Prevention – Collecting information to stop an incident before it occurs both within the prison facility and out on the streets is possible as gang decisions are internally issued
- Crime Solving – Once correctional gang investigations are trained and aware of what to document and look for, that information can be shared to the appropriate law enforcement agency to hopefully lead to arrests, searches, and successful prosecutions. Intelligence received at the correctional facility can be as simple as an address or information from a letter to start prosecutor convictions.
The value of a great Gang Database to a correctional facility is truly multi-dimensional. At its core, it is invaluable to help with officer safety, violence prevention and crime-solving. Other layers include using it as a tool to help train staff and bring them up to speed on associations. Gangs are continually changing, as are staff that investigate them. A database that historically documents intelligence and events will make a new, or relocated, staff member more aware of the facility’s gangs and inmates, including their history and affiliation. It will facilitate the new staff member to be much more informed, better prepared, and working safer overall.
Gang Databases, lastly, can also be used strategically to support upper management. This includes long-range planning, identification of emerging problems and gangs, new gang leaders, and trends/patterns of gang behavior. This type of information is useful to prison administrators for budgeting, resource allocation, and overall facility policy development.
There is a shift happening and it involves correctional facility’s gang intelligence officers and street law enforcement who are proactive in information capturing and sharing. These new alliances are becoming integral pieces to gang suppression efforts and support both internal and street-level gang investigators. Our goal is that this document helps to spark that idea regionally where you are, and can better assist you in the overall goal of policing gang activity.
GangScope™ is a gang intelligence database that helps capture, analyze, search and share intelligence on gangs, gang members, and more. GangScope acts as a first-tier, internal database that manages data on known and suspected gang members. Intelligence is collected per incident and includes qualifiers, associates, acquaintances (points of contact), witnesses, images, and documents. GangScope’s collection of detailed information aids in investigations, analysis and ultimately solving crime. The software complies with standards outlined by federal (28 CFR) policies. While complying with standards, GangScope™ boasts usability through simple yet extensive data mining via search, reports, overviews, and watches.
The overall goal of GangScope™ is to provide law enforcement personnel/ crime analyst/ correctional officers/prosecutors with maximum data through a friendly user interface while remaining cost-effective.
To learn more or to schedule a full demo of our system – request a demo here. We would welcome the opportunity to show you how Gangscope can help your department organize and store your data in a secure and compliant way.
The GangScope Team
