Gang activity low in Warden, police chief says

WARDEN — Warden Chief of Police Rick Martin said Warden’s gang activity has been significantly lower since the 2010s, but the city still works with surrounding communities and within its own boundaries to prevent gang issues from returning.

“Well, I don't want to jinx ourselves, but we used to have a horrible gang problem,” said Martin. “Early on, we had a whole lot of trouble with gangs and because we had a lot of juveniles, so Warden at that time — and what time was that, maybe 2010 — and around that time, it was terrible.”

Martin said that when it comes to gang issues, it’s important to stay ahead of the problem.

“You don't want to get behind the eight ball or get behind the curve because once it gets established, it's hard to eradicate,” Martin said.

Because Warden is a smaller town, they have to deal with gangs differently than nearby cities, like Othello or Moses Lake, he said.

“On the plus side,” said Marin, “we don't have a whole lot of things for younger people to involve themselves with …like bars and just things to do. This is more of a family town.”

A town such as Moses Lake has more repetitive issues with gangs, which is why Martin said that the Warden Police Department often adopts or learns from policies on gang activity or related criminal activity that come from Moses Lake. 

“If we're going to share bad guys with Moses Lake It's probably going to be Norteños. It seems like that's been the trend. The Norteños that we do have in town are Eastside Familia. But they've grown older and we just haven't had those problems like we did in the earlier days.”

Martin said Warden used to have much more violent encounters with gang members.

“We've had drive-by shootings, literally we've had running street battles in town. It was terrible. Bullet holes in cars, people yelling at me, ‘What the hell's going on?’”

Martin said that Warden does still deal with taggers, but that it is not usually gang-specific.

“Usually, most of the stuff we get now is Sureños related,” said Martin. “They'll just tag a random, You know, Sur 13, but it's not specifically driven from a certain set. And so what we do when we get tagging, we start sharing it with Othello. We do share a lot of bad guys with Othello.”

Warden community members did not take to a gang presence, said Martin.

“If you come into town, you'll see signs with gangs and a little emblem that crosses them out. We didn't put those up. Community members made those signs and just stuck them up, you know, without the city’s authorization. We just left them up,” he said.

Martin said that one of the ways they tamped down on gang activity and crime in the 2010s was by cracking down on individuals driving without a license and other civil and ordinance violations and that in a small town, it’s much easier to be spotted acting out.

“We were taught in the academy that most criminals don't know how to drive or can't get the license. So driving when their license suspended is one way that we would just pay attention, not just to gangs, but to the criminal element in general … We had a city ordinance that we tow on suspended drivers…if you're towing what they're driving, it is an impact. And if you're arresting people that have warrants, it is an impact, right?” said Martin. 

Another method the city used to help with the gang problem was city ordinances against fighting, said Martin. 

“They would fight in the park at the drop of a hat, you know, fight on site. They’d fight on-site in Main Street, they'd fight on-site in the store too. And so we got the city to pass the city ordinance that there was no fighting,” he said. “So when we pick them up and nobody wanted to be a victim, we would kind of have a victimless crime, but then we created an ordinance, no fighting. So if you didn't want to be a victim, the town would be the victim. It could be creating a disturbance and we would write you for a civil ordinance violation for fighting in public.”

The ordinances and crack down on fighting also helped with younger members of the community, said Martin.

“And that had an effect with fighting in the schools and everything else,” said Martin. “We would have kids that would fight, jumping in, gang members If we catch them and we'd write the kids, the kids and the parents would then be involved and we would have at least something to give us some leverage, right? So, a lot of these things that helped us out were Civil penalties that we got city council to pass.”

Martin, who has grandchildren in school and is also a member of the Warden School Board, said that safety at the schools and working with parents is a high priority for the Department. 

“I think where we do our best work is at the school and working with the school,” said Martin, because the kids like doodling on their notebooks and things, they'll find it in the notebooks, they'll find it somewhere. And now we'll communicate. And then, then it starts there, right? Then we could bring the parents in, 'Look at what we found, what's going on here,’ you know, and then those conversations can start. And then once the parents become aware, you know, this is a collaboration.” 

Martin said that fear of the unknown can play a part in the community’s perspective on gang issues in the city, but he said that he still looks at gang members and criminals as human beings.

“They're not evil, vile people,” Martin said. “When we talk, or I talk to their parents, we talk like this. They know my name, you know, they call me by my name and we talk like this and when they get to doing their thing, on a Saturday night, drinking beer, or whatever they're doing, they do their thing, And it's not pretty, you know.”

Martin said that labeling the crimes as gang activity or street crimes can be misleading.

“Crime is crime. If you label it gangs you might be doing yourself a disservice because they're really criminals first. Even seasoned drug users are criminals first,” he said. 

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. 

    The Warden Police Department coordinates its efforts with other area law enforcement agencies to keep gang activity to a minimum in order to enhance safety for area residents.