Harris County Sheriff's Office to relaunch gang task force for Houston-area schools

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There's an effort underway to reduce gang violence in school districts around Harris County. The Sheriff's Office is working on an agreement with the districts to keep violence in check.

There was a similar task force in place back in the early 90s. We're told it worked very well, but the money ran out and it went away. Now, Sheriff Garcia and several ISD police chiefs want to try it again, in hopes of even more success.

"Over the past 18 months to two years, so many violent occurrences have spun up and really the families are concerned, the school staffs are concerned, and the police departments are concerned," says Major Michael Wong.

What witnesses described as a gang fight ended with Joshua Broussard stabbed to death at Spring High last year. And in September, Stovall Middle school student Jose Meraz was found murdered in a field. His family blamed the gang MS-13.

These are just two instances of gang violence that led the Harris County Sheriff's Office to initiate the effort to form a task force. That collaboration would fight gang criminal activity by tackling their most fertile recruiting ground:schools.

"We have documented gang members as early as middle school on up through high school," says Sgt. Mark Schmidt.

If county commissioners sign off, each participating district will have one or two officers working gangs full time. More than a half dozen have already agreed to join, including Klein, Katy, and Spring Branch.

"We don't have a problem with that in our area but we are looking to prevent it in the future," says Katy ISD spokesperson Denisse Cantu.

"I think the task force will help document where the mobility is of our various gangs, and we will know where they're moving, and have a better handle of who some of the leaders are," adds Spring Branch ISD police chief Chuck Brawner.

They'll share intel on known gang members and activity, and assist one another when gang activity happens at school. Chief Brawner says they may not stop gangs totally, but they'll put a dent in what they do.

"...The more intelligence the gang unit will be able to do will help identify who the kingpins are in these gangs, and bring those individuals to justice," he said.

County Commissioners discussed the proposal briefly this week, and asked county attorney Vince Ryan about the extent of the county's liability under the task force contract. Ryan tells us he anticipates having a report to the commissioners at the next meeting.