Gang Intelligence Center's Size Belies Its Mission

Not anymore. Burroughs estimated that he has identified about 300 gang members in Charles alone, using state standards that say a gang member must have some sort of "identifying sign, symbol, name, leader, or purpose," and be focused on committing crimes.

The gangs in the Southern Maryland region, he said, range from well-known national organizations such as the Bloods or the Crips to more regional enterprises such as the District's 18th-n-Monroe crew.

And Southern Maryland has a few homegrown groups, such as the Dope Boyz and Cut Boyz, Burroughs said. He said the local groups have fewer symbols, simply tattooing their gang names on their bodies and adding a "z" at the end of the word "boy" to form their identities.

"That's kind of how you tell a local gang," he said.

Quirky though that practice might be, Burroughs said, Southern Maryland's homegrown gangs are no laughing matter. Called "nontraditional" gangs, their members can sometimes be more violent than traditional ones because they feel they have more to prove, investigators say. Although many gang members in Southern Maryland simply commit acts of vandalism or robbery, some have graduated to more violent crimes, he said.

The key, Burroughs said, is keeping a finger on the pulse of who is doing what. And if the information center's walls and shelves are any indication, the detectives there have a pretty good idea of that.

Across from the officers' desks are two gang artifacts: a Mexican flag seized in St. Mary's bearing the name of the Mexican gang Sur-13 and a T-shirt seized in a Charles high school bearing the name 18th-n-Monroe.

Thick, three-ring binders full of gang intelligence fill the shelves, sitting alongside high school yearbooks. Those, Burroughs said, are invaluable in tracking gang members in schools.

"Knowing who your gang members are is knowing who your criminals are," he said. "Anywhere gangs come, the quality of life deteriorates rapidly."