What Panel Says Is Needed
These are the major recommendations that will be made to the Long Beach City Council in a report on street gang activity by the Public Safety Advisory Commission:
- Publicly funded programs should be started to provide, at no cost, recreation and vocational training opportunities for youths in gang-afflicted areas. Businesses should be asked to help pay for the program and provide jobs.
- The school district should focus more directly on the problem by providing an intensive course to teach youngsters the perils of gangs at an early age. In addition, the district should train teachers and other personnel how to recognize the signs of gang membership and deal with it.
- A special gang task force of officials from various public and private agencies should be formed to coordinate measures designed to reduce gang crime.
- Police should consider adding more officers to investigate gang-related activity. (The department has two officers assigned to its gang detail.)
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