Report on gangs raises questions

By: centraljersey.com
I recently read the "Gangs in New Jersey: Municipal Law Enforcement Response to the 2010 NJSP Gang Survey" and am appalled that our Police Department is in denial about the information presented in this document. It is alarming to read that based on the information provided to the state police, Hightstown, with a population of about 5,000 residents, has the most gang-related activity of any municipality in the county, making us No. 2 with Trenton taking the lead as No. 1.
Published reports indicate that our chief chalked up the purported high presence of gang activity to Hightstown’s proximity to major roadways, saying the numbers actually reflect an estimate of gang members who pass through the area on the heavily traveled roads, such as routes 33, 130, 571 and 539 and the New Jersey Turnpike. Interesting!
If investigators from around the state were asked to provide a wide range of detailed knowledge about gangs, then I would like answers to the following:
– Who within the HPD was the lead investigator who gathered these statistics?
– How long did it take to gather information on these "passing through" gang members?
– How did the HPD investigator know that these select 119 individuals passing through the area were gang members?
– Were they stopped or did a HPD officer just follow them from Route 130 to Exit 8 on the Turnpike?
– Did these individuals have paraphernalia indicating they belonged to a specific gang?
– Were they involved in a particular gang-related activity as they were passing through?
– Based on what criteria were these figures compiled?
– Were all members of the HPD privy to this information or did they find out about it when the rest of us did?
– Were the Mayor and Council given the opportunity to review this data prior to it being forwarded to the state police?
– Who gave the OK to submit this information to the state police?
– If the information in the survey is incorrect, why hasn’t the HPD written a press release apologizing for this major "faux pas"?
Passing through and living in our community are two different scenarios! Many people pass through Hightstown from neighboring communities and ARE NOT gang members. Something about how this information was compiled and analyzed just doesn’t add up or make sense!