Editor's note: This is part one of two parts.
Nearly a year has passed since the Gang Reduction Initiative of Pine Bluff announced a $330,000 state grant aimed at helping the organization prevent, intervene against and suppress gang activity and related crime in the city.
About 100 citizens and public officials came together Tuesday inside a Pine Bluff Convention Center ballroom to hear from East Coast juvenile justice experts about how their communities turned the tide against violent activity during a town hall forum. Ten people ages 19 and younger have been identified as suspects in homicides within Jefferson County since 2021, according to data obtained by The Commercial.
Robert Bermingham, an independent consultant from Fairfax County, Va., said his locale didn't focus solely on stopping gang activity that was rising when he was a youth counselor, but also the illegal activity and behaviors often associated with troubled youths.
"Law enforcement cannot arrest their way out of this," Bermingham said, recalling a point one of the county leaders at the time made to him. "The impact on kids is essential, but the big challenge was gathering data on the crime that was occurring. The community is the answer to the problem."
Bermingham also suggested the time investment of volunteers and faith-based organizations in helping youths change behaviors. Fielding a question from Pine Bluff councilman Bruce Lockett, Bermingham said the reduction in youth crime and gang activity in Fairfax County started with an all-day forum of residents.
"If egos are left at the door, we find that commitments are high and crime and gang numbers go down," he said.
Michelle Darling, senior program director of the Massachusetts-based Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, told the story of how the death of a high school basketball player, who was not known to be in a gang but was an acquaintance, touched off years of gang activity in Delaware, where she previously worked as the state's chief of juvenile probation. It took about 18 months of community planning before evidence of illegal activity being stemmed could be seen.
"It wasn't all roses," she warned. "The collaboration was fantastic, but the data on crime wasn't shared. We erroneously targeted kids who weren't involved when some other kids were involved."