Blood spilled on the streets of Gary, Ind., in 1995, and everybody agreed the situation was out of control.

A town with about 30,000 fewer people than Aurora saw 130 murders that year, 10 times the number here.

That's when the FBI came in targeting the often-violent addicts who would steal and kill to support their habits. So far, more than 300 people have been given lengthy prison sentences, and the murder rate has been cut in half.

The FBI recently has made its footprint in Aurora, as well, but, instead of targeting drug users, it's been going after the dealers, trying to attack one of the root causes of gang violence in this city the lucrative drug pipeline that brings cocaine from Mexico to Chicago.

This week, Aurora took on its problems, with talk and action.

More enforcement here or in Gary won't necessarily get rid of gangs, however, nor will it stop teen-agers from joining them. It will do what it has done temporarily get violent people off the streets.

"A community has to balance zero-tolerance law enforcement with intervention and prevention," said nationally recognized gang expert Steve Nawojczyk. "You need to treat (gangs) like cancer. You can't just take pain pills; you need to go after the root causes."

As Aurora battles its gang problems, a coalition of forces including the FBI, state and local police, community groups, religious leaders, parents and schools all are working to bring peace to the area.

With rising gang violence and increased street tensions, enforcement becomes a top priority, but Aurora police acknowledge it will solve only part of the problem.

"The most we can do is hope to protect the rest of society," Mayor David Stover said, "and that's where the responsibility lies."

The inside out

Protecting the public involves knowing what's going on within the gangs in order to limit collateral damage.

"In a nutshell, it's basically keeping an eye on the pulse," said Commander Michael Fuller, who oversees Aurora's gang unit, the second largest in the state. "It has to do with gathering intelligence. It has to do with being out in the street and documenting the contacts that you have with (gang members)."

However, joining a street gang, associating with gang members or wearing gang colors isn't a crime. Even with knowledge, police must keep their eyes and ears open to wait for a criminal offense.

It's that awareness where police invest most of their efforts. Because of the sensitive, ongoing and often disguised nature of these operations, the APD will only release only the broad strokes of how they anticipate and respond to gang violence.

Police have compiled a list of gang members based on criteria ranging from someone admitting they are in a gang to wearing gang colors to associating with known gang members. Those lists are coordinated with state and federal databases.

If, for example, police make a stop and find out the driver of the car is a gang member, the officer will be more guarded. That's especially true if the driver is in a rival gang's neighborhood.

Turf lines, often a source of violence, are well tracked by Aurora police. They take note of who hangs out where and what graffiti starts popping up in certain areas.

Knowing the battleground helps if retaliation is expected. Police concentrate more on certain "hotspots," often near turf lines, where violence is most likely to occur.

"You're trying to predict their retaliatory moves," Aurora Police Chief William Lawler said.

To that end, the APD's gang unit receives specialized training. All officers go through a 40-hour, state-certified course that teaches skills including interviewing and interrogation techniques.

The department also sends officers to a yearly training course put on by the Midwest Gang Investigators Association. In addition, as workshops and classes arise throughout the country, the department will send a few officers to bring what they've learned back home.

This training isn't limited to the 27-member gang unit. In-services with general assignment officers are commonplace. Those in the gang unit with the most knowledge of local issues often meet with other officers for mandatory training.

Patrol officers typically take note of activity they think may be gang-related and pass it on. Officers assigned to areas where gang activity is expected are apprised of gang intelligence as well.

Working Together

Like Gary, some of the most successful operations in Aurora come from the collaboration among agencies to ensure tougher penalties and better cases. Aurora police work closely with Illinois State Police and the FBI.

"I don't want (gang members) to think this is just the Aurora police," Lawler said. "I don't want them to sleep at night."

Police often monitor places where they know gang activity is ongoing. Carefully building a case against gang members means a better chance of disrupting operations.

The recent drug busts here have showed the value of teamwork and time. Nearly a year after police heard Juan Corral was a major drug trafficker, 32 men face federal charges that carry mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years in prison and maximum sentences of life without parole.

That case included 5,000 intercepted phone calls and six months of cooperation from informants within the Latin Kings.

The differences in results between federal involvement in Aurora and in Gary, however, help to explain the uniqueness of the local situation.

In the operations here, authorities say a major goal is to disrupt the drug-trafficking pipeline from Mexico to Aurora by picking off key figures organizing the drug trade.

In Gary, the problem was based around small-time dealers and addicts committing violent and public crimes while scrambling to satisfy their addictions.

The situation there frustrated local police because, once the drug dealers were arrested, they quickly posted bail and were back on the streets. With the FBI taking the lead, however, federal judges didn't need to set bail.

That meant, during the month it took for drugs seized from the street to be analyzed, the alleged dealers were behind bars, and, when the results came back, stiff mandatory minimum sentences ensured long jail stays and no parole.

"When we come to get you, you come to jail, and you don't get out," FBI supervisory special agent Mark Becker said in a recent interview.

The downside of Aurora's carefully tooled plan is that, in the short term, it actually may aggravate the violence as gangs battle for control of the lucrative drug trade.

The recent raids have sent the hierarchy of gangs here into disarray. Unfortunately, Stover said, "the more organized gangs are, the less violence."

Unanswered questions

The true tests for Gary and Aurora still haven't come. Once that first round of drug dealers is back on the streets after serving prison time, will they return to their old ways? Will the new generation of children turn to gangs and drugs?

Experts say that depends on what else they have to turn to.

"You need to compete with (gangs) for the young people," Nawojczyk said. That's why it takes a multifront attack that combines prevention with enforcement to end gang activity.

The police here are involved in prevention, although Lawler admits "a lot of our visible efforts are on the suppression side of the house."

A teen-ager straddling the gang membership line might be visited by police on a "knock and talk," where they meet with the youth and his family to try to convince them of the perils of gang life. Resource officers at the local high schools and middle schools also keep tabs on students.

In addition, a curfew aimed at teen-agers also helps control gang activity, even when it isn't criminal. In fact, this city ordinance, which allows police to stop teen-agers for curfew violations and get them off the streets late at night, is one of the APD's "most powerful tools" in crime prevention, according to Lawler.

Community-policing officers also keep in close contact with neighborhood leaders and groups. Close relationships can tip off police as to when crimes have occurred or are going to occur.

The blame game

Despite the ongoing efforts of Aurora police, much of the blame for the recent surge in violence has been placed at their feet.

That can be a dangerous assumption, say experts, because it takes responsibility for preventing gang violence away from every other element of the community.

Police are only one part of a grand scheme that includes parents keeping their kids otherwise occupied, teen-agers urging friends to stay away from gangs, teachers finding positive avenues of interest for students and communities creating opportunities for everyone.

"(Gang life) is seen as an easy, exciting lifestyle that offers quick, fast money and a lot of other things kids are fascinated with," said Bishop Charles Phillips of the New Covenant Full Gospel Church.

Phillips has helped run the Inner Circle Neighborhood Group for the past eight years. His goal is to get his community, located near New York and Ohio streets, to be "the eyes and ears" of gang awareness.

This group will approach those getting involved in gangs and try to discourage them.

"Some of them are embarrassed because we represent the church and we are confronting them with behavior which I think they know is obviously not what it should be," Phillips said.

He refers those drifting into gang life to Waubonsee Community College, where they can earn a GED, job training and placement assistance.

The group also keeps in close touch with the local alderman and community-policing officer. There are about 14 similar organizations in Aurora currently working as neighborhood watches.

The school's role

Schools also play an important role which may be expanding

"I think, when you work with kids, you know the issues of so many homes where there's latchkey kids," said Judy Surfus, community relations builder for the West Aurora School District. "There's a lot of kids that don't have that nice support after school."

Surfus met with several local organizations, including SciTech, Thursday to discuss a new program that would give students something to do before and after school. The program will take funding and planning, but Surfus is committed to the idea that, if kids had more to do in their off hours, gang life would seem less inviting.

In addition to offering programs like DARE, GREAT and Character Counts, which all are aimed at building students' self-esteem and teaching them about healthy alternatives to drugs and gangs, schools are on the lookout for problem cases.

Jim Vaughan, East Aurora assistant superintendent, said his schools have a zero-tolerance policy toward gang involvement and routinely tell parents and police when they think students might be involved.

"We're in the business of providing a safe school environment, and that's our top priority," Vaughan said.

Aside from the curriculum in the DARE and GREAT programs, he noted that the greatest benefit may be the comfort level students feel with police.

"(Students) can ask honest questions and get honest answers," Vaughan said.

What remains to be seen is how many of them will listen.