WASHINGTON — The Montgomery County Council voted Tuesday 9-0 to approve a supplemental budget that could help thwart gang activity in the county.
The budget approved Tuesday would add $597,000 to the police department and $246,000 to the State’s Attorney’s Office.
Phil Andrews, with the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office told the council members in Tuesday afternoon’s hearing that the vote “will enable the State’s Attorney’s office to hire three additional assistant state’s attorneys and a senior legal assistant in order to address the substantial gang problem that we have.”
Andrews explained that there have been 20 murders tied to gang activity in the past two years.
Andrews told the council members the additional prosecutors are needed because “gang homicides, in particular, are very complicated because of the number of suspects charged who may be involved.”
Before the taking the vote, council members agreed that the supplement was needed, but several members said more needed to be done. Council President Roger Berliner talked about the escalating violence involved in gang recruitment. Berliner said potential recruits are sometimes told that if they don’t join MS-13, a gang with roots in Central America, the potential recruits’ family in their home country could be killed.
“What’s a young person to do in that circumstance?” asked Berliner.
Council member Craig Rice said some residents have come to live in fear of the gang’s outreach to young children.
“High school students are volunteering to walk elementary students home in the afternoons to make sure that they get home safe and they aren’t intimidated by gang members trying to recruit them” said Rice.
Council member Marc Elrich, who chairs the council’s public safety committee, agreed with his colleagues that the efforts to combat gangs has to expand.
“I share everybody else’s feeling that this has to be a multipronged approach.”
Noting the regional connections that gangs have, Elrich urged his colleagues to push ahead without waiting for other jurisdictions to act.
“I think we know what we need to do” he said.
