They're legit...not just wannabes...

[Lucinda F. Boyd]

Cheyenne gangs: "They're legit ... not just wannabes," says Sgt. Rob Dafoe

By Lindsey Erin Kroskob
[e-mail]

CHEYENNE -- The Cheyenne Area Gang Enforcement team is putting an ear to the ground.

It has positively identified 109 gang members living in Laramie County and is in the process of researching 67 more.

The team of 11 Cheyenne police officers and one supervisor is spearheading the effort, along with various Laramie County organizations, to monitor and prevent gang-related activity in the area.

"The gangs that we deal with are those whose common focus is criminal acts," Cheyenne Police Sgt. Rob Dafoe said. "For anybody to sit back and think that a gang problem in any community is going to go away or get better has another thought coming."

He said the primary gangs in the area are off branches from the "Surenos," based out of southern California.

"These are real people; they're legit," Dafoe said. "They're not just wannabes."

There have been a number of gang-related crimes in the last few years, mostly one gang member against another.

Dafoe said that face-off relationship can seem like a good thing, but it only takes one bullet gone awry to cause problems for the general public.

"The problem is: They're stupid. They're untrained. They don't know how to use guns," he said. "Unfortunately, because they lack everything that's required for safety, sometimes unintended people get hurt."

Respect is the most important thing to gangsters, and disrespect can have serious consequences.

"That respect is everything," Dafoe said. "It's more important than family. It's more important than life or death."

Gang members don't think about the consequences of their actions because they live solely for today, Dafoe said.

They also thrive on fear.

"Over time that whole sense of fear has completely surfaced," he said. "Now they understand that they can be powerful, recognized and respected."

So the Cheyenne Area Gang Enforcement, or CAGE, team has started to track every person in the community who may have gang ties.

"It's brewing; this team's focus is prevention," Dafoe said. "We prevent by intelligence. Knowing the enemy is huge."

He said the "old school" way of handling gang members was to rough them up to get information. But the "new school" method is to be a smarter, friendlier cop. The goal is to establish a rapport, Dafoe said.

They also track graffiti and its meanings.

He said every piece of graffiti cleaned up by the Graffiti Abatement Program is logged with the CAGE team.

Recently, it partnered with Homeland Security agents to target several local gang members.

"Operation Community Shield" resulted in the arrest of six subjects, three of whom had confirmed "Sureno" ties. Five of the six had outstanding Wyoming warrants.

On the statewide level, the Legislature passed an act last session allowing for the prosecution of anyone who intimidates in order to further the goals of a street gang. It went into effect July 1.

"Within a few months of implementing CAGE, (the team) has proved to be an effective unit in solving crime," Police Chief Brian Kozak said. "National statistics show that communities over 50,000 in population experience increased gang violence.

"We need to remain on top of this potential problem to make sure gang members are looking over their shoulders for CAGE officers and not rival gang members."..