As MoCo gang activity remains ‘consistent’ since 2023, police grapple with understaffing

Department also facing scrutiny of validation process for identifying members

MoCo gang activity remains ‘consistent’ since 2023, police official says

At least 19 validated gangs are operating in Montgomery County, though more likely have gone unreported, and their activity remains “consistent” since 2023, according to Captain Ian Clark, director of the police department’s Special Investigations Division.

Clark provided an update on local gang activity from the police department’s Criminal Street Gang Unit to the County Council’s Public Safety Committee on Monday. Clark and Montgomery County Assistant State’s Attorney Gabriel Carrera of the state’s attorney’s office’s Gang Division spoke with committee chair Sidney Katz (D-Dist.3) and members Dawn Luedtke (D-Dist. 7) and Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 5) about trends, challenges and understaffing experienced by the unit.

According to Clark, gang activity this year has remained “consistent” with related crime trends since 2023. Assaults, weapons offenses and robberies were the most prevalent types of gang-related crimes occurring so far this year, he said, noting data for 2025 has not been finalized.

Gangs in the county, which include groups like MS-13, frequently use social media to recruit members and intimidate opponents, and conflicts often stem from disputes on social media, according to Clark and a council staff report on the update. The report noted that youth were responsible for 71% of all gang-related offenses; however, it did not specify what ages or for what time period. “Gang activity is a concern in the County, although it tends to be localized and episodic rather than pervasive,” the report said.

The communities that see the highest levels of gang activity are in the police department’s 6th District in Montgomery Village, 5th District in Germantown, 4th District in Wheaton and 3rd District in Silver Spring, according to Clark. Neither Clark nor the report named the gangs active in the county.

In 2024, weapons offenses, robberies and assaults were the top three gang-related violent crimes reported in the county, the report stated. The gang unit saw a 500% increase in gang-related robberies year over year – from two robberies in 2023 to 12 reported in 2024. In addition, reported gang-related weapons offenses increased by 50% from 12 in 2023 to 18 in 2024.

The number of reported gang-related homicides and assaults decreased from 2024 to 2023. According to the report, three gang-related homicides were reported in 2024, a decrease from five in 2023. In 2024, 14 aggravated/simple assaults were reported, a 52% drop from 29 in 2023.

Overall, gang-related crimes in the county have decreased from a recent peak in 2022, when 37 assaults, 24 weapons offenses, 21 robberies and six homicides were reported, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Clark told the committee that the gang unit is dealing with understaffing that has led to burnout for officers and detectives in the gang unit who may spend weeks at a time in criminal trials on top of their other duties. There are seven vacant positions out of 16 positions in the unit’s two departments — the Gang Investigations Team and Major Offender Gang Team, the staff report said.

With “limited operational scope with our staffing challenges, the proactiveness of our gang unit can be challenged,” Clark said.

The county police department as a whole has been grappling with understaffing for several years, with the department down about 190 officers, Clark said. The department is authorized to have 1,275 sworn employees.

Clark noted the department will need to take a balanced approach to filling the gang unit’s vacancies as well as the others across the department. However, he expressed optimism that upcoming graduates from the department’s training academy may help fill roles in the gang unit.

“It’s just going to take a little bit of time,” he told the committee.

Need for more resources
Clark and Carrera also pushed for additional resources for the police department’s gang unit to be included in planning for the county’s fiscal year 2027 operating budget. Fiscal year 2027 begins July 1, 2026.

According to the staff report, the police department successfully argued the positions should be retained, especially in light of recent Maryland court opinions that scrutinized the department’s gang validation process and its use in prosecutions.

The unit uses an eight-point standardized assessment tool to determine if an individual is affiliated with or a member of a gang, according to Clark. Under Maryland law, individuals part of or affiliated with a validated gang can be subject to harsher sentences and fines. In addition, gang affiliation and/or membership is one of the criteria for the county Department of Corrections to honor a detainer request from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mink said during the meeting.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Theresa Chernosky was one judicial official who scrutinized the validation process and listed several concerns about the admissibility of the gang unit’s expert witness and gang validation process in trial testimony, according to committee members. The concerns addressed whether the unit’s gang validation tool can address alternative explanations if a defendant meets the criteria for gang affiliation or whether the tool can be tested and assessed for reliability or accuracy.

In response to the concerns, Clark said the gang unit has added extra steps for peer and supervisory review of the gang validation summaries before they are presented in court. Adding those new steps means “each validation summary must now be completed twice,” which “effectively doubles the workload for detectives and necessitates additional staffing to maintain case quality and trial readiness,” according to the staff report.

Despite the new steps the gang unit has taken, Mink expressed apprehension that the department had not done enough to address the concerns about the validation process.

“I have significant concerns about using additional staffing to basically do the same thing that we have several pages of the judge explaining why it’s a concerning methodology,” Mink said. “It’s extremely important work, … but the question of whether this is a method that we should be using, and how much effort we should be putting into making improvements on it, that seems like an important one as well.”

Carrera noted that adding peer review was one of the initial ways the department could respond and that the validation process has been used and accepted “for years.”

“It’s not something that can change overnight and I think that just highlights the man hours that are required,” he said.