Law enforcement holds gang conference

The Carson City Sheriff’s Office, in conjunction with surrounding counties, hosted a three day gang conference in Reno for Northern Nevada agencies to get together and discuss new gang trends and ideas.

Twelve different law enforcement agencies sent nearly 70 officers to this free training to meet and share information and law and legal updates.

“It is important because of networking and information sharing,” said Carson City Sgt. Daniel Gonzales. “We may have people sprouting up all over the place and we can all work together to get information and piece together the puzzle. Having people who can share stories and subject matter, we can get the most up to date information.”

The conference featured classes on gang trends, the nexus between gangs and drugs, updates on the motorcycle gangs around Northern Nevada and guest panels. They also had speaker from all over including multiple district attorney offices, the Marshals, Tri-County gang unit and ex-gang members.

“The conference was great, we had a full class,” said Carson City Deputy Dan Jones, one of the Tri-County Gang Unit officers. “We had some amazing speakers thanks to my partner Sgt. Ron Miller from Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. It is always good to get information on gangs out to the new deputies who have attended the conference from all over Northern Nevada.”

The Carson City Sheriff’s Office had representatives from the gang unit, the Special Enforcement Team, a School Resource Officer and a patrol deputy.

“That is what’s neat about this program, it is a very open type of class so you can have officers who are first year deputies or veteran deputies,” Gonzales said.

The program was funded by the Justice Assistance Grant, which allowed all the officers to attend the conference free of charge. The program was put on by the Tri-County Gang Unit with the support of the Carson, Lyon and Douglas County Sheriffs.