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Sgt. Mike Richey leads the Criminal Intelligence Squad — a group that until recently was tasked with dealing with Greensboro’s gang problem. Richey joined the police department in 1994 and was assigned to east and southeast Greensboro, where gangs are a fact of life for residents. This has brought him face-to-face with the reality of Greensboro’s gangs: young kids selling drugs, carrying guns and wearing gang colors.

Q. You've been working with gangs in one way or another for a decade. How has gang activity in Greensboro changed?

A. The gang situation in Greensboro for the last 10 or 15 years has been pretty static. What's increased is the organization, the national structure and recruiting. One part of that is pop culture, the popularization of the thug life. ... But another part of it is that the Internet has made this information pretty easily available.

Recently, we recovered from someone some national gang rules, gang oaths, all of it downloaded right off of the Internet.

Q. Is the Internet being widely used for gang recruiting, then?

A. There may be some gang recruiting. But what we see more is that national gang organization, the way things are organized and information about gangs and gang life and culture are on the Internet, and so there is wider availability of that. You don't have to be in an area that has a lot of gangs. You can be anywhere now and get that information.

Q. What makes a kid want to join a gang?

A. The basic thing is that the kid feels there is something missing from his life. He's looking for something. Experience teaches us that kids who get involved with gangs ... don't think about their futures. You can help that. You can prevent it.

I absolutely believe that it begins with the family. Having open and frank discussions in your family about these things is so important. And in the end, it's not up to the police department or the schools or the church to be responsible for people's children. It's the responsibility of the parents.

Q. When you talk about pop culture, the question comes up: How many kids wearing gang colors and throwing up gang signs are gang members, and how many are just wannabes?

A. There is a thought in gang investigation that a wannabe is going to become a gonna be. If they have that interest and that desire and they don't put their energy somewhere else, they'll probably get involved in the gang life.

Q. You talk about the influence of parents and family on the direction of children. I've noticed that a lot of cops come from whole families of cops, that it's a family thing. Is that true of your family?

A. Yes, absolutely. My father, grandfather and uncle were all police officers. So that had a big influence on me.

Q. What have you learned that's surprised you most in your work with gangs?

A. I think the most surprising thing for me personally would have to be that children involved in gang activity have a commitment level comparable to national pride of someone joining the military. That's how strong their commitment is. That's how much they believe in it.

Q. Where does that commitment come from? How does it become so strong?

A. It comes back to them missing something in their lives. Or a better way to say that is their feeling there is something missing in their lives. You can get that from sports, from church, from family. These kids feel that they get that pride and that level of commitment from gangs.

Q. How do you combat that?

A. Well, there are many methods. It depends on the situation. When you're dealing with gangs there will be some gang members that will be going to jail for the crimes they were involved in. Others, especially juveniles that are involved in gangs early, you can get involved with them, with the parents, get them involved in something else. You can help to get them out of that life.

Q. The new gang unit will soon be taking over from your squad, the Criminal Intelligence Squad. What's the new way they'll be dealing with gangs in Greensboro?

A. Well, the new way is really going to be the old way — the way we've been suggesting we deal with gangs. There are going to be more people involved, more resources assigned to the unit. They'll identify members. They will help determine gang involvement in crimes, but they're also going to be doing community policing and education.

Q. So we're going to see the way gangs would have been addressed previously, if you'd had the resources?

A. That's correct. We have been suggesting this for a while. We know what we want to do, and now we're going to try to do that. Some people will go to jail, but there will also be a community and education component. That has to be done as well.