Do some gangs seem to have a more organized structure or relationships in illegal activity?
Hartman: All gangs are involved in illegal activity. Some steal cars, some deal drugs, some are involved in robberies, some do burglaries. Smaller gangs will do street beatings, some with weapons. They’ll do some robberies and some burglaries, deal drugs, a lot of little things. The large groups, you’ll have larger factions within the group doing diverse activities. Q: What are some of the gangs’ illegal activities? Hartman: In the penal code there’s a list of 33 different criminal sections that we view as gang activities. And those can go from murders, drive-by shootings, kidnappings, robberies, extortion, drug dealing, auto theft, identity theft is very, very big within the gangs right now. Q: While the public may think of identity theft as a white-collar crime and associate it with computer nerds, you’re actually finding that it is part of gang activity? Hartman: Extremely. The Asian gangs particularly are very big on identity theft. Some of the black gangs have gotten involved in i
