Of the 246 gangs in the APD registry, the vast majority will likely not exist in any real sense within a few years. But as this definition qualifies perhaps half of Albuquerque’s young people, substantial discretion is needed to concretely identify who is a real gang member and who is a “poser” that is, who is a danger to society and who is innocuous. Gangs are often defined minimally as groups of at least three individuals who identify themselves as a group and who routinely engage in some kind of illegal activity. Like so many things, a “gang” is little more than a loose concept used to describe a great many social phenomena for which multiple connotations exist. This number is deceiving considering the enormous diversity in size, structure, and purpose of these groups. Future posts will explore the complex workings of gang life from the perspective of current and ex-gang members.Īccording to the police, there are as many as 246 active gangs in Albuquerque and a total of 7,700 documented gang members. This post therefore reflects the perspective of the police. I requested a ride-a-long with the unit to try to learn what is real and what is not about gangs on the streets of the city I usually call home. In Albuquerque, the mayor responded to rising violent crime rates by tripling the size of its Gang Unit in 2010, which now boasts a fifteen-member team split into a plain-clothes squad dedicated to undercover investigative work and a uniformed task force to patrol the entire city of Albuquerque.
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