Glencoe police officials say Chicago Crime Commission’s numbers don’t add up

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Updated: March 10, 2012 8:34AM

Fifteen active gang members living in Glencoe? That’s not many, but it’s a lot more than Glencoe Police say live here.

That’s the number listed in the new Gang Book, however.

“To my knowledge there are no gang members living in the community,” Glencoe Public Safety Chief Mike Volling said. “Unless someone has moved in here that I don’t know about.”

Jonathan Harlow, the detective who filled out Glencoe’s Chicago Crime Commission surveys for the book, agreed. He suspects there’s some kind of misunderstanding about the data.

Are arrestees and “contacts” being confused with residents? Are numbers just being confused, by either the commission or the police?

Harlow said arrestees, often on traffic stops, are identified as gang members, but even those may be questionable.

“You can stop somebody who had a gang affiliation from when he was 19, 20 years old, and now he’s in his 30’s.

“He’s got kids, a job, a life — he’s not gang-banging any more.”

The Gang Book also listed, as “Active Gangs in the Community,” the Four Corner Hustlers, Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, Spanish Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords. The first four were also listed as those “Gangs in Order of Most Concern to the Community,” with the order of the third and fourth gangs switched.

Deputy Chief Al Kebbe that there’s “no gang activity in town except people putting graffiti on public signs and public buildings.

“You’ve got tagging on the railroad bridge, and we can’t even tell if it’s from a gang member, some wannabe, or artistic expression.”

Kebbe said the number isn’t accurate, “and I don’t downplay crime.”

Pioneer Press has found several police departments that question the results. They range from towns with significant gang presence with police officials who say it’s not quite as bad as the book says, to La Grange Park, which claims to have sent in a survey, but its statistics are listed as “unknown.”

A Crime Commission representative could not be reached for comment Monday.