Conference to focus on burgeoning gang woes

Gangs along the Wasatch Front, unlike their national counterparts, haven't typically been territorial or concerned about race.

While much of that remains true, gang detectives say they are seeing signs that may be changing, especially as gang members become influenced more and more by career gangsters relocating to Utah from places like Southern California.

The 17th annual Utah Gang Conference hosted by the Metro Gang Unit, beginning Thursday at the South Town Expo Center, will share information about the latest gang trends and activities. Some of this year's workshops look at the growing number of girls who are recruited into gangs and then exploited, national gangs growing in Utah such as the dangerous MS-13 and gangs in the military.

In March, the U.S. Marshal Service's Joint Criminal Apprehension Team along with the Metro Gang Unit arrested several gang members from California and Baltimore wanted for murder in their home states. The gang members fled to Utah after their crimes to either hide or resume their illegal dealings in another place.

One new trend that concerns Sgt. Bill Robertson with the Salt Lake Metro Grant Unit is gang members of a certain ethnic background becoming more violent against people of their own culture or even within their own gang. And their inclination is to shoot first, Robertson said.

"There are Polynesian gangs who are shooting each other for no reason," he said. "A lot of the mentality of the younger kids when they have to prove themselves like that is they feel like they have to take action."

Robertson describes some areas of gang activity as like a "powder keg" just waiting for something, or someone, to set it off.

"It's definitely active right now. The are several things that are happening in the valley that could escalate in an hour," he said.

And it isn't just gang members picking on their own culture.

Other new trends to Utah that have gang detectives worried include some gangs starting to become more territorial and setting up boundaries of their area, and gangs that are becoming less race tolerant.

In Los Angeles, there has been a recent problem of Hispanic gang members targeting any black gang member they can find.

"Some gang members here are exhibiting that behavior," he said.