Tacoma Gang Assessment January 2019 Prepared by: Michelle Arciaga Young Tytos Consulting Tytos Consulting would like to express our appreciation to the City of Tacoma for underwriting this report and to the Neighborhood and Community Services Department for providing support and coordination during the assessment process. Personnel from Comprehensive Life Resources – Rise Against the Influence (RAIN) Program and the Washington Department of Corrections - Community Corrections Gang Unit (WDOC-CCGU) were responsible for arranging the gang member interviews. Calvin Kennon (RAIN Program) and Randi Unfred, and Kelly Casperson (WDOC-CCGU), as well as other personnel from these agencies, dedicated considerable time to ensuring access to gang-involved individuals for gang member interviews. We are very grateful for their help. Kelly Casperson also provided data on security threat group members in Tacoma which was helpful for this report. We would also like to recognize the individuals who participated in these interviews, and who so candidly and openly shared their life experiences with us, for their valuable contributions to this report. Jacqueline Shelton of the Tacoma Police Department Gang Unit spent considerable time cleaning and preparing police incident report and gang intelligence data for analysis and inclusion in this report. We are indebted to her for this assistance. Focus groups were conducted with personnel from the Washington Department of Corrections Community Corrections Gang Unit, Pierce County Juvenile Court, agency partners from the RAIN multidisciplinary team, safety and security personnel from Tacoma Public Schools, and officers from the Tacoma Police Department Gang Unit. These focus groups contributed greatly to our ability to understand, analyze, and interpret the data for this report. We appreciate the efforts of individuals who arranged these focus groups, and the time and openness of the individuals who took time to share their knowledge and experiences with us. We also want to express our thanks to the over 900 people in Tacoma: residents, policymakers, agency personnel, school personnel and public safety personnel who took the time to participate in surveys for this report. Lastly, we would like to express our admiration and respect to the individuals and programs in Tacoma who work tirelessly with local young people, often in dangerous conditions. Gang member interviews were conducted by David Johnson and Michelle Young. Focus groups were conducted by Michelle Young. Data entry assistance was provided by Triankeyna Bond. ii Table of Contents Introduction 1 Executive Summary 3 Section 1: Key Findings 6 Section 2: Community Demographics 17 Section 3: Gangs, Crime and Violence 26 Section 4: Perceptions of Gang-involved Individuals 76 Section 5: Community Perceptions and Experiences 97 Community residents 97 Community leaders 109 Agency personnel 117 Public safety personnel 125 Comparative analysis 131 Section 6: School Data 135 Section 7: Gap Analysis/Youth Risk and Needs Assessment 144 Bibliography 175 Resources 176 Appendix A – Detailed Demographic Data by Neighborhood and Census Tract 179 Appendix B – School Suspension and Expulsion Data, by School 195 Appendix C – Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Survey Questions and Scoring 197 Appendix D – Individual Youth Program Full Surveys 199 iii Introduction In 2011, City of Tacoma officials convened a steering committee of policymakers who jointly conducted Tacoma’s first gang assessment. This report followed the template recommended by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and collected data from multiple domains: police incident report data, gang intelligence data, personal interviews with gang-involved individuals, surveys with community leaders, community residents, and school personnel, and a gap analysis of existing programs. Based upon that report, the City of Tacoma implemented the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model beginning in 2012/13. The City of Tacoma served as lead agency for this initiative, convened a multidisciplinary intervention team of agency partners, and contracted for gang outreach services from Northwest Leadership Foundation. In 2016, after multiple shootings involving comprehensive gang model participants, the program was restructured. In 2017, a contract was awarded to Comprehensive Life Resources to facilitate reconvening the steering committee, multidisciplinary team, and provide gang outreach services through a new program called Rising Above the Influence (RAIN). During 2018, in order to provide direction for future activities, policymakers contracted for a second Tacoma Gang Assessment report. Personnel from the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Police Department and Comprehensive Life Resources also attended OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model training in Houston, Texas to ensure that gang intervention activities were in-line with the evidence-based model. REPORT OVERVIEW This assessment report on gang activity in Tacoma was commissioned by the City of Tacoma’s Department of Community Services. The goal of this assessment is to guide future gang prevention and intervention strategies. In order to accomplish this goal, this assessment provides information on the level and extent of gang activity in Tacoma City, its impact on all sectors of the community, and risk factors specific to youth gang involvement in the City of Tacoma across a variety of data domains. The methodology for this assessment was guided by The OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model: A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, 2009). 1 This report contains eight sections: Key Findings and Recommendations This section provides an overview of critical issues identified by quantitative and qualitative data from multiple domains and recommendations for specific strategic actions to address these issues. Community demographics An analysis of census data from the 2017 American Community Survey to identify demographic patterns and social conditions that are important to understanding the context of local gang issues. Gang crime data Tacoma Police Department incident reports for homicide, aggravated assault and robbery from January 2015 to August 2018, as well as police intelligence data on gangs were analyzed to identify existing information about local violent/gang crime, including type and frequency of violent crimes, demographics of suspects and victims of these crimes, and the demographic composition of local gangs their involvement in violent crime. Gang member interviews Twenty-seven interviews were conducted with gang-involved individuals in Tacoma who were referred by Comprehensive Life Resources RAIN program and the Washington Department of Corrections Community Corrections Gang Unit. These interviewed lasted approximately one hour and included an In-depth assessment of the life experiences of gang-involved individuals, a quantitative analysis of risk factors experienced by these individuals, their individual level of involvement in high risk behavior, and identification of gaps in existing services needed to help them transition to a more prosocial lifestyle. Community perceptions Multiple community constituencies, including residents, community leaders, agency personnel, public safety personnel and school personnel were surveyed using online surveys. These surveys were designed to assess the level and effects of local gang issues, perceptions of constituency groups about causes and solutions to local gang issues, and level of satisfaction with existing efforts. School perceptions and suspension data School personnel from Tacoma Public Schools and Teach for America were surveyed about gang activity in the learning environment and observed risk factors and needs of school-aged youth. Data on school suspensions over a four-year period were also collected and analyzed. Gap analysis, Risk and Need Assessment Local agencies were surveyed to quantify youth service delivery and youth/gang involved individuals risk factors were collected and reported to identify gaps in existing services. Bibliography Citations for gang and youth development research referenced in this report. Resources Online information about gang research, programs, and strategies. 2 Executive Summary Key finding 1: While identified incidents of gang violence have decreased from 2011 levels, gun violence in Tacoma remains high in relation to comparable cities in Washington and has increased slightly in the past three years. This violence, which is primarily perpetrated by individuals aged 18 to 30, diminishes the quality of life for many residents and puts young people at risk of violent victimization. KEY POINTS • Gun violence in Tacoma is not localized to specific neighborhoods. • Many of these violent gun crimes, while not explicitly identified by crime reports Tacoma Police Department as gang-related, have characteristics common to gang-related crimes. • Violent crime in Tacoma was trending upward as of August 2018 in comparison to prior years. • Gang members themselves report high levels of personal victimization • A desire for safety/protection is a primary reason that youth and young adults choose to join gangs in Tacoma. • A high percentage of parents in Tacoma report that they believe their child could be injured in gang-related violence. RECOMMENDATIONS • These factors, in conjunction with Tacoma’s high rate of aggravated assaults, suggest that Tacoma should place greater emphasis on gang