The number of violent youth gangs at Madison high schools is increasing due to lack of resources, police and outreach coordinators said at the City Council meeting Thursday night.

“We all know that this is not a ‘big city’ problem,” said Madison Police Captain Tom Snyder. “This is not a new issue.”

According to Detective George Chavez of the Madison Police Department, police are trying to take a pro-active approach in dealing with gang problems.

“We do a lot of things,” he said. “We’ve really started to look at this gang issue outside of the box.”

Chavez said that the main problem is that gang culture is seen as acceptable in mainstream culture. He also said race is not the issue. “Gangs are an equal opportunity employer.”

The MPD is focusing on the areas of prevention, intervention, re-entry and suppression in handling gang issues, Chavez said.

Frank Rodriguez, a youth outreach coordinator, is facilitating the Developing Alternatives to Redirect Teens program to help prevent children from joining gangs, and to help teens involved in gangs to get out.

“My goal … is to bring families and communities together,” Rodriguez said. “Most of these kids can do better and can succeed.”

However, according to Chavez, due to a lack of resources, Madison police are having difficulty dealing with the growing number of graffiti and violence associated with youth gangs.

“We’re trying to meet the needs of the community,” he said. “We don’t have people out there to respond.”

When asked what the City Council could do to address the issue of gang violence, Chavez said the Council needed to commit for at least 10 years and to remain consistent, since the issue has never really gone away.

“We know these behaviors are not acceptable,” said Ald. Thuy Pham-Remmele, District-20. “Why do we allow this cancer to fester?”