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Birmingham police are teaming up with federal agencies to fight violent crime and small-time gang activity. But police say there are disturbing signs of new gangs with international connections moving in our direction.
Police say graffiti is how you can tell there are gangs in your neighborhood, often painted on abandoned houses or public property.
Captain Charles Rafford with the Birmingham Police Department said, "We see your typical blood, crip disciple graffiti. We've also seen in the last couple of years an increase in the Hispanic gang graffiti, the MS 13 tagging, the S 13, the SUR logo."
Rafford works with the FBI, the ATF and the U.S. Justice Department to stop violent crime and gang activity.
"The vast majority of what we have in Birmingham are small groups of guys who live in the same neighborhood, or same neighborhoods and work together to sell drugs, steal cars, commit thefts, things like that," said Rafford.
Rafford says the situation here is minor compared to big cities like Los Angeles.
"L.A. has 35,000 documented gang members. They have a population of four million. We have a population of roughly 225,000. We have about 138 known gang members," said Rafford.
But he says the growing threat from violent, Los Angeles based gangs with ties to El Salvador is real.
“They're moving east, and we've seen evidence of that and several other major cities and several states have seen evidence of that also," said Rafford.
Officers working with Birmingham’s violent crime and gang unit took us on a tour and pointed out the graffiti that marks gang hangouts and claimed territories in all four precincts of the city. In the north precinct you can see signs of the "folk" gang, along with the letters IGD, signifying the "insane gangster disciples."
In the west precinct we found signs police say are names of blood and Latino gang members.
In the south precinct, right under I-65, the highway department had to put up a fence after columns covered with graffiti were painted over, then covered with more graffiti.
And law enforcement warns you can't ignore the invading gang influence no matter where you live.
"There's bleed-over in all the communities surrounding Birmingham, now other communities may not want to acknowledge that fact but it's a fact and that's the way it is," said Rafford.
What does the graffiti mean?
Police say gangs try to claim territory by marking it with specially coded graffiti. It's a way of showing control and a test for any resistance.
"When you leave that type of thing on the walls or in the streets, they think nobody cares about this, this is my territory, I rule it. But we want them to know that the citizens of Birmingham rule Birmingham. We want to keep it safe for everyone," said Birmingham Police Chief Anetta Nunn.
Some gang graffiti is pretty obvious, like the word "bloods," or the word "crips." Those are Los Angeles based gangs.
Other signs are more cryptic. The letters "IGD" stand for insane gangster disciples, but sometimes they use numbers standing for the 9th, 7th and 4th letters of the alphabet instead.
Police say Hispanic gang members often use the Los Angeles area code they are from, two Hispanic gangs in Birmingham are associated with the north L.A. and south L.A. versions of the "13" gang. SUR means south in Spanish and you can see plenty of stylized SUR-13 signs around Birmingham.
Police say it's important to keep an eye out for fresh graffiti, but keep in mind, gangs aren't the only ones carrying cans of spray paint. There are plenty of graffiti artists leaving tags around town, too, making law enforcement's work more challenging.
"Being able to distinguish between gang graffiti and someone being artistic is something that takes some training," said Rafford.
Rafford says painting over graffiti is a good way to resist gang activity in an area, after police check it out.
"I wouldn't paint over the graffiti right away, I'd call the police first, let us come out and look at it. Guys on my violent crime violent gang task force will come out and look at it, they'll photograph it, they'll do interviews in the neighborhood, then if the homeowner or property owner wants to paint over it, great," said Rafford.
Rafford says in addition to the violent crime unit working with the FBI to prevent gang activity in Birmingham, other cities and state and federal agencies are banding together to develop a combined approach to the problem.
"What we're doing is we're supporting each other, we're exchanging information, we are working on proactive measures to deal with not only gang members but violent crime in general," said Rafford.
Some gang graffiti is pretty obvious, like the word "bloods," or the word "crips." Those are Los Angeles based gangs.