FARGO (KFGO) – Each recorded member of the 54 street gangs in the Fargo-Moorhead area is part of a local gang database that’s strictly regulated by state laws in North Dakota and Minnesota.
Before anyone can be included in the database, police must certify that the gang member meets a minimum number of requirements. Among other things, the criteria include self-identifying as a gang member to a law enforcement officer, associating with gang members, being arrested with gang members and the use of hand signals or tattoos.
Police officers carry interview booklets that are used to record names and descriptions of suspected gang members. The information is verified before it’s added to the gang database.
“You can’t just look at a tattoo and take it at its face value” Fargo Police Sgt. Shawn Gamradt of the Metro Street Crimes Unit said. “I could have a six-point star on my hand. Is it a gang reference? It could be. There are certain tattoos that mean certain things, but we just can’t use that and say ‘this is commonly used by this group, and therefore, you are a gang member.’”
“Some of the gangs are homegrown and some of them are more national” according to Detective Jamey Gahner, who works in the Fargo Police Dept’s Intel Unit. “If they have passed through our community at one point, and we have noted that they are part of a gang, then we store it in our system. We’re required by law to purge that after five years.”
Gamradt says last year, the Street Crimes Unit vetted 88 “classifications” for the database, but he says that number doesn’t necessarily translate into 88 individuals.
“It might be that ‘John Smith’ was a Crip and his information started as a Crip in 2015. After five years, that information gets purged. But now I deal with ‘John Smith’ again, and I would re-classify him again if he still has the tattoos and he still admits to me.”
