The South Carolina Gang Investigators Association held its second conference to take the initiative on stopping gang violence in the state, as it continues. President of the association, Phil Reta, says among those in attendance were the FBI, SLED, ATF, and other law enforcement groups. South Carolina has teamed up with North Carolina in realizing the importance of cross-the-border gangs.
“Gang violence or violence in general is not limited to jurisdictional boundaries, so what happens is South Carolina for the most part has been in a bubble and we’re not aware or we’re not acknowledging that we have a problem. So, what we’re trying to do is to get everyone the knowledge and the experience based on these cities that already have to deal with that,” says Reta.
During the meeting, a new web-based listing, SCGangNet, that lists gang crimes and associations, to better target these criminals, was unveiled. Here’s the main objective of the conference…
“We want to open the lines of communication, what happens is you’ve got so many people doing so many different things and there’s not like a written textbook, if you will. Gangs are kind of flowing just like other businesses, they adapt to the societal happenings,” says Reta.
A total of six conferences will be held in Greenville.