Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office

Here are some measures you can take to help prevent or combat gangs in your neighborhood:

Report any incidences of graffiti. We learn a lot from deciphering gang graffiti, including the street names of members of a particular gang and the gang’s current rivals. Once we photograph the graffiti we encourage the property owners to have the graffiti removed as soon as possible.
Notify the police when you observe a large group of juveniles hanging out in your neighborhood during strange hours. This could be late at night or during school hours. Unless your neighborhood is situated with a 24 hour convenience store, we need to know who these juveniles are and why they are in your neighborhood. Sometimes just the knowledge that the police are in the area is a deterrent to crime.
Know your own children. To many times the parents of a gang member doesn’t realize that their own child is involved, citing reasons like "he deserves his privacy" or "I don’t know his friends." What you don’t know these days can kill you. If the child is under your roof, regardless of whether or not he’s 12 or 30 years old, its still your house and you need free access to his room. Look for various items like illegal drugs, notebooks with drawings or writings that seem strange to you, an avid interest in "gangsta rap", a sudden increase in monetary funds that you can’t explain, and a sudden preference for clothing with one dominant color.
Keep your child busy. Be it sports, music, church, or social clubs, if your child is to preoccupied with positive, constructive activities then he or she won’t have time to engage in criminal/gang activity.
Keep yourself visible to the public. Street gangs like neighborhoods where the residents don’t seem to care or are to afraid to come out. When these groups see a continuing presence of community members in their yards or out in the streets walking, it takes away the anonymity that they desire to commit crimes. In most circumstances, they will move on to a neighborhood less threatening to them.

If you have any questions about street gangs, juvenile delinquency, or physical abuse, please notify the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office 752-0616, ext. 650.