Without objection, the chairs authorized to declare recesses of the Sub Committee at any time. And let me say that we are to vote between 10 45 and 10 50. I will not make an Opening Statement but put my Opening Statement into the record. I will ask every other member to allow us to hear the witnesses so that they all are able to get their testimony in before we have to leave to go and vote. So without objection, all Opening Statements will be placed into the record at this time. We have a very distinguished panel this morning. And i will begin by swearing in our witnesses before introducing them. Will you all please rise and raise your right hand . Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you give to this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Let the record show that all of the witnesses have answered in the affirmative. I will give an abbreviated introduction for all of the witnesses so that we can hear them and get to as many questions as possible. The first witness is Kenneth Blanco who is the acting assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division in the department of justice. The second witness is mr. Mark van ic who is a Board Advisory member for the illinois chapter of the midwest gang investigators association. The third witness is captain chris martz from the Los Angeles CountySheriffs Department. And our fourth witness is dr. Gary slet kin who is the founder of cure violence, based in chicago. We will now proceed under the five minute rule. And mr. Blanco, you are first. Thank you, good morning mr. Chairman and sensenbrenner, members of the Sub Committee. It is a pleasure to appear before you this morning to discuss the department of justices efforts to combat Gang Violence. Violent crime is on it the rise in many parts of america. Gang violence increasing the headlines, news cycles every day. In ilts frequency and effect in the communities and get caught in the crossfire. There are 1. 4 million members of 33,000 gangs operating across the country. All of whom use violence to boost their illegal money making activities, protect their territories, enhance their status and fulfill their missions. Too many of our citizens live in fear of these violent criminals. All americans deserve to be free from violence and safe in their homes, schools, jobs, and neighborhoods. This is why it is a top priority of the department of justice under the leadership of the attorney general sessions to reduce Violent Crime in america, including gang related violence. Reducing crime requires that we balance strong Law Enforcement with effective prevention measures. We must take the violent offenders off the street and thwart gangs efforts to recruit vulnerable youth. To achieve the first of these aims the department relies on Law Enforcement agents, including the gang section, the narcotic and dangerous drug section, the u. S. Attorneys offices, as well as Law Enforcement agencies like the atf, fbi, dea and us marshall service, and other Law Enforcement partners such as u. S. Immigration and customs en forment Homeland Security services, investigative h. S. I and tribal Law Enforcement partners. Federal prosecutors lead investigations and prosecutions of criminal gangs of region Alan National and international such as aryan brotherhood of texas, gangster and ns 13, to name just a few. Prosecutors and investigators have prioritized Violent Crime and most violent offenders in their districts and individuals are prosecuted fully and sentenced fully under applicable state and guidelines and significant penalties under the law. Many gangs distribute dangerous and Illegal Drugs to generate income to support their illegal activities. And with Drug Distribution comes violence. Thus, when appropriate federal prosecutors also seek to charge gang members and foreign king opinions who supply them with drug offenses. None of these prosecutions and investigations would be possible without the daily sacrifice of the dedicated Law Enforcement officers who investigate these criminals. Specialized task forces comprised of federal, state, local, tan tribal Law Enforcement officers, such as fbi community shield, and those funded by the organized crime and Drug Enforcement task program are hard at work in the areas with the highest concentration of drug and Gang Violence. Law enforcement efforts to arrest have Significant Impact on the quality of life in hour communities. But enforcement alone will not end gang membership and Gang Violence. We must also support gang intervention and gang prevention programs. Many such programs are funded by the departments grant making components, including the office of justice programs, ojp, and the office of policing services, cops. For example, ojp office of juvenile prevention and bureau of justice assistance jointly fund the National Gang center which provides comprehensive resources, training, and strategic tools to those in the field of Law Enforcement and criminal justice. As well as to the Community Organizations to prevent Gang Violence, reduce gang involvement, and suppress gang related crime. These are just but a few examples of the departments continued commitment to supporting our federal, state, local and tribal enforcement partners in ending the Gang Violence in our communities. Thank you. And i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you very much, mr. Blanco. I forgot to ask this. Nans consent that all of the witnesses written statement be placed in the record in full . Mr. Van ic . Good morning. And thank you, mr. Chairman and members of the Sub Committee for inviting me today to talk. It is an honor and privilege to be here today. I serve on the board. The association was formed in 1987 and is an organization with over 2000 members representing 12 states throughout the midwest. It is a Collaborative AssociationWhose Mission is to develop and recommend strategies to prevent gang crime, administer training, as assist educated ors regarding gangs in their communities. Last 17 years i have been employed as Police Officer in midwest with investigating street gangs with state and local level. Street gangs today are different than the gangs of 10, 20, even 30 years ago. Presently street gangs are more violent, more technologically savvy and glorified. They have increased prominence over drug addicts in their daytoday operations. Everything has glorified the wrap lifestyle. Africanamerican gangs factual lieization has become the norm without a strict hierarchy. Presently gangs have faxctions into the hundreds. In chicago, they have hybrid gangs. Hybrid gang consists of younger gang members of different racial and ethnic groups and gang members that were or are from different gangs. These hybrid gangs have no hierarchy or no symbolic association with more than one gang. The hispanic gangs have a strict hierarchy. Still committed to the codes, and loyalty to their gang. The hispanic gangs still abide which the National Alliances from the late 1970s. They prey on individuals that cannot help them selves by getting them addicted to a drug. Gang members have become the fentanyl in the streets. Just a quarter can kill you almost instantly. Cart fentanyl is more strong than morphine and 100 times more stronger than fentanyl. They are more tech savvy than ever before. They reach a Larger Customer base than selling at a street corner. Any time i can go ton the internet and interact with a gang member to purchase any type of gang i wish. I have personally investigated these types of crimes and chilling to the extent of varieties and amounts that are available to be purchased as well as weapons. The cause of Gang Violence stems from several factors such as fighting over selling drugs, comments made on social media, wrap song lyrics, and hispanics fighting officer territories. They have violence in their communities than higher levels. In todays world innocent bystanders are being shot and killed more than ever. A family is targeting the gang member themselves. In areas like the state of illinois, county of cook, when an individual is shot and either a victim or witness makes a positive identification of that offender, victim does not wish to prosecute, the offender is not charged with the offense. In fact often not charged with any crime. The other thing for Law Enforcement is overworked on the merits of the case rather than what is believe a judge or jury will view on. Biggest obstacles is getting witnesses to cooperate in any investigation. Law enforcement does not have the immediate Resources Available to relocate or provide assistance to them. Without assistance how can we expect witnesses to come forward and place their lives and families in harms way. There are technological advances that can help Police Officers. Animation when fired leaves a fingerprint mark and firearms requiring samples from all fully automatic firearms would provide Law Enforcement with new leads that would allow them to proliferation of this to street members. Thank you you for inviting me for testifying today. Law enforcement can be not be the sole answer. It is only part of the answer to reducing. Prosecutes and judges must be held accountable as well as Law Enforcement with the rising Gang Violence. Government and social and economic programs and Community Involvement are all essential to reducing Gang Violence. Not one entity can solve it alone or take credit. It must be coordinated effort on all parties. I look forward to answering your questions that you might have about gangs and look forward to working with members of the Sub Committee to ensure the success in reducing Gang Violence. Thank you. Thank you. Captain marks . On behalf of the major county sheriffs of america, los angeles koun tim sheriff Jim Mcdonnell and all the partners that involve this task force, thank you for inviting me to testify this morning on street gang members and sex trafficking. It combines the resources of local state and federal Law Enforcement with the authority of the los angeles District Attorney and u. S. Attorneys office with truly victim centered approach. The combination of resources include the Los Angeles County department of children and family services, Los Angeles County probation department, California Department of corrections, and nonprofit, the coalition against slavery and trafficking, are all colocated in the same office, literally sitting next to each other. Our Colocation Center brings together systems of discipline to address the victims needs through a victim centered trauma informed approach. The task force employs a strategy that crosses jurisdictional boundaries to identify sex trafficking while pursuing traffickers and buyers. They have pursued and succeeded in this. However the street gangs operated their enterprises within a territory. Their willingness was limited to violence against arrival gangs and property crimes. For the past several years they have moved beyond the boundaries and travel through the state in teams or as crews as they are known to do robberies. Los angeles gangs began utilizing the flocking tactic. In flocking criminal straight members from a single gang or multiple gangs, and sometimes even rival gangs join together and travel throughout the southland and commit residential burglaries by forcing into a house by overwhelming numbers and in less than a minute or two commit the crime. Now criminal gang members are doing the sex trafficking market. Gang members have realized the luck tive opportunities throughout Los Angeles County the majority of cases we handle as the traffickers are gang member or affiliate of a gang. The crime of trafficking commercially sexually exploited children pre strents ta relatively low risk of arrest for the gang member in sex trafficking. Previous such as illegal narcotics place the possessor in immediate threat of arrest with such contraband. To add to that complexity of this issue commercially sexually exploited victim does not want to cooperate with officers. The fact that narcotics can only be sold once. And as we all know sex trafficking victims can be sold multiple times a day. In Los Angeles County and throughout california, gang members operate sex trafficking victims both independently and for the benefit of the gng and frequently the gang members will travel to any community to recruit sex trafficking victims and they will also travel to any community to sell their trafficking victims either online, on the street, or in a motel, without fear or reit will yags of violating another gangs territory. However, in certain places in los angeles, they require them to pay a tax to work in that area. This is a common means of gaining money for benefit of a gang and has been employed against small businesses. The tax for sex workers has not been uniformly adopted tlou out california. Street gang members possess vulnerable populations online, at schools, or in public places. These vulnerable people, typically young girls have often suffered abuse and neglect throughout that you are lives. The predatory senses of a gang member easily identify this population. And their gang membership is used to glorify the lifestyle and the acts of prostitution as a power full recruitment tool. The gang member then expertly manipulates the vulnerable child using his affiliation to demonstrate his willingness and ability as a criminal to be a capable of kmieting violence to protect themselves. Once they do that they have control over them through psychological abuse and atmosphere of dependency. I want to thank the Sub Committee and staff for affording me to testify before you today. Thank you, doctor martz. Doctor slep kin. Chairman, and distinguished members, thank you for you the opportunity to testify. Im dr. Gary slep kin. Im a physician and founder of cure violence. Cure violence is an ngo rated 12th in the world among the top 500 ngo and rated first to reducing violence. I previously worked for the World Health Organization where i learned the tools of working on epidemics. Ep dem nicks mostly in africa. I returned to the uchlt s in 1995 and worked on violence in in country. We discovered that new research is not what we thought. Its an epidemic problem like other Health Epidemics but not being managed that way. We also learned that new met adds that can help that can have a big impact. These are being greatly under utilized. Main thing about violence is to see the people in groups doing this process, which can be reversed. We have to shake some of our old ideas. Dozens of studies show that violence is predictable required through brain mechanisms and pathways that cause copying and following what peers do. The the, definitive evidence of this is in the evidence report of 2013. This spreads among individuals in families and groups and recruitment happens in this way. The violence in u. S. And latin america is following all patterns like all diseases. We took advantage of this in 2000 when we tried health methods in a pilot in the park which was the most at the time. We got 67 percent drop in killings in the first year and it was almost immediate. Do it again. We had four more replications with 4 percent drop in killings. Since then there have been several independent in the works and spread to 25 cities in the u. S. As well as latin america. These results are obtained by Health Workers similar to those used for other epidemics. Health departments supervised this work. And in new york baltimore and kansas city the health department. In honduras its a local partnership. And in El Salvador Partnership with save the children. The results are usually 25 to 50 percent drops in killings. But 70 to 100 percent are seen when there is enough workers. Approximately 40 to 70 has been seen in chicago. 30 to 50 drops in baltimore. 50 in mexico. And 88 in san pedro or on did your us. It also can be fast with results shown within the first month multiple times. Several communities have also gone to zero for a year to two years. Some of these communities include cherry hill in baltimore, in yonkers in new york. This is what you aim for in epidemic control. When i was working at cholera epidemic, we were aiming to