Whether or not there is a gang problem in Kosciusko County depends on who you ask.

Ptl. Mike Cox of the Warsaw Police Department is a gang specialist and has completed the Gang Resistance Education And Training (GREAT) program.

"I think there is," Cox said of gang goings-on. "We have kids doing things gangs do and calling themselves gang members."

Cox said there have been reports of people coming into Warsaw from Fort Wayne, Chicago and Denver who are members of organized gangs. Many of these people are known to police and, if they are seen in town, Cox said, they are encouraged not to be here. If they remain in town, he said, "we use our discretionary powers and arrest them whenever we can."

Whenever there are "gang-related" crimes, Cox said, information about them is referred to him, often just for information purposes. Cox defines "gang-related" as an offense committed by an alleged gang member. If a crime is "gang-motivated," Cox said, it means it was an act done "because of the gang" or "for the benefit of the gang."

Most activities seen among alleged gang members are graffiti, thefts from cars and some drugs, Cox said. The age span for those who take part in gangs is about 12 to 20, he said, with participation dwindling after "members" turn 18 and realize that they can go to jail for their actions.

The only recent crime considered to involve gang members was a shooting Oct. 22, 1995, in Leesburg. The alleged rival gang members involved in the incident were from Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, but stopped outside a Leesburg business to continue a confrontation that began at the Tippy Dance Hall.

Trooper Don McCay of the Indiana State Police said 23 gangs are known to exist in Area 2 - from South Bend to Muncie - which is covered by the Bremen Post and includes Kosciusko County.

McCay said the majority of gang concentration is in the larger cities, but believes that small towns are not immune to gang problems. McCay would not comment whether any of the identified gangs have been pinpointed in Kosciusko County, but did say that the area is "in the highways and byways" between the major cities, so smaller towns should be on the look-out for gang activity.

But opinions vary.

"I don't buy the fact that we have a gang problem," said Deputy Tony Ciriello, DARE officer for the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Office. "I believe we have dabblers and wannabes, but none of the organized gangs like in big cities."

Ciriello said he is in the schools daily and, if such problems existed, he would see them.

He associates the current talk about gangs to ongoing changes in society. "Styles have changed. Kids are wearing clothes nowadays no different than the bell bottoms and hip-huggers of the '70s," Ciriello said. "What people disliked in the '70s, people dislike in the '90s."

He added: "What a lot of people are seeing as gangs are just groups of young people getting together to have a good time and are no different than the cliques we had when we were growing up."

Because of the work he does in the schools, Ciriello said he took the GREAT course so he could incorporate it if it was ever needed. So far, he said, that need has not been established.

Another DARE officer, Sgt. Terry Polston of the WPD, said he has seen grafitti on notebooks in the schools where he teaches, but believes the kids are simply seeking popularity. He said he has seen gang-type symbols being drawn by children as young as third-graders and that he confiscated a "handbook" of gang rules from a fifth-grade girl.

"(The kids) think it's cool to say that they're part of a gang," Polston said, adding that many bow to peer pressure in an attempt to fit in. Part of the DARE curriculum involves avoiding violence and overcoming that peer pressure.

"If you get arrested," Polston said he tells the students, "your friends aren't gonna get you out of jail." He also tells the kids that if they shun someone who wants to be their friend, it may push them into joining a gang.

Kosciusko County Sheriff Al Rovenstine said kids today like to dress and talk like someone who is in a gang; however, he leans toward the belief that most problem juveniles claiming to be in a gang are simply wannabes.

"I feel that it's something we are monitoring and building intelligence on," Rovenstine said. With the exception of the Leesburg shooting, he said there have been no arrests of people who are gang members. "I think we are keeping a good handle on it."

While Warsaw Police Chief Craig Allebach believes juvenile problems do exist, he also does not liken them all to gangs.

The problems, he said, come and go and, he added, this summer hasn't been as bad as previous years. His officers are diligently enforcing curfews and park closing hours in an effort to keep the kids off the streets and out of trouble.

Allebach said a lot of the problem is that nothing is being done for juvenile offenders when they commit minor crimes and that there is nowhere to put them when they do something major. [[In-content Ad]]