On the road with Elgin's gang unit

Under new program, officers help identify at-risk youth before they join gangs

It's late afternoon as members of the Elgin Police Department's gang unit come out of the daily roll call and prepare to begin their shift.

"The majority has been confiscated on some type of consent search or home visit," explained Detective Tom Wolek, as he takes out a seemingly endless number of T-shirts and baseball caps from a large, black duffel bag.

Most items look fairly innocuous at first glance as he holds up a Pittsburgh Pirates cap, followed by another of the New York Yankees.

But for Wolek and the rest of the nine-person team, the athletic gear often reveals something other than fan allegiance: The colors and letters signify ties to one of the more than 20 gangs active throughout the area.

The unit is headed by Sgt. Dan O'Shea, who understands that at times a child's involvement in gangs can be obvious but remain unknown to parents who are unaware of the signs.

"Most of them don't know that their kids are stepping into the gang world," he said. "A lot of times parents will show us what's in their room and there'll be gang graffiti and all sorts of stuff."

This year, Wolek helped launch Operation Homefront, a program where police coordinate with school liaison officers, resident officers and street patrol officers to identify at-risk youths. Upon consent of the parent, an officer will visit the home of those identified to conduct a search of the child's room.

It's part of an initiative to take a more proactive approach toward gang enforcement in an attempt to resolve minor issues, such as fights in school or disciplinary trouble, before they manifest in criminal activity.

"I prefer to get a gun on a home visit than to get the call in the middle of the night saying there's been a shooting and the offender was a juvenile when we could have intervened early on," Wolek said.

That same approach has been carried over to the streets as Wolek and his partner, Officer Rick Santiago, prepare to start a night of patrol.

The sun has almost set as Wolek and Santiago ride in an unmarked patrol car toward Drake Field -- one of many gang "hot spots" the two will visit over the course of the evening.

Their activity can take many forms. They might perform a routine traffic stop to check a familiar license plate number. Or, seeing the expressions on the faces of a group hanging out on a street corner, the gang unit will stop to have a chat with the guys.

Across the street, there's another potential problem: Two groups of people with ties to two rival gangs living at an apartment complex.

"Because of their gang status," Wolek said, "we don't want rival gang members living so close to each other that could obviously lead to bigger and worse things."

Police estimated out of the gangs known to be in the area, roughly seven have remained consistently active for a number of years -- most of which began as off-shoots of Chicago gangs already well-known throughout the Midwest.

Each gang is categorized as belonging to one of two alliances known as either "Folks" or "People," which were formed in Illinois prisons during the 1970s. The situation at the apartment complex serves to show one of the differences between gang members who reside in larger cities such as Chicago -- where one gang may have large numbers within certain neighborhoods -- and those found in Elgin, where members of rival factions can live just a few doors down.

Unlike Chicago, "I don't think there are areas in Elgin where kids need to join gangs to survive," Wolek said. "Here in Elgin there's not a particular area where you can say this is (one gang's territory) or this is" another gang's territory.

The two police officers ride up to a group hanging out near a couple of vehicles. They get out and walk over to one man who instantly greets Santiago with disdain as he approaches. The routine is familiar to both cops as Santiago talks with the man while walking him further away from his friends, who watch, snapping an occasional picture with their cell phones.

Meanwhile, Wolek already has checked the plate numbers on the two nearby vehicles to look for any outstanding warrants. Both come back clean.

The man and Santiago seem to end their conversation on much better terms than when they started, each seemingly familiar with the routine. Wolek estimated more than 1,000 people are on the department's "gang roster," a list that profiles those identified as being active gang members.

Santiago said it's an approach to policing that has seen positive results both in helping to reduce tensions and obtaining valuable information.

"It's definitely evolved," he said. "You don't see the same issues as you saw in the past."

Each hot spot the two officers visit offers its own tragic tale of violence. A turn onto North Street immediately brings up talk about the house at the corner, where Julian Mascote, 18, and Francisco Franco, 21, were gunned down during a house party in July 2007. Stopping near the intersection of Channing and Prairie streets immediately brings to mind images of the bullet holes that entered the back of a teenage boy who rode his bicycle into the middle of crossfire on a September night of that same year.

For Wolek and Santiago, the images and stories go back much farther, an ever-present reminder of what keeps them out on the streets at night.