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Somerset County Sheriff’s OfficeSomerset County Sheriff’s OfficePersonal Safety Tips for Child Personal Safety Tips for Child

Support Professionals Support Professionals

Officer David SyringSomerset County Sheriff’s Office

20 Grove Street Somerville, NJ 08876

(908) 231-7140

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Introduction Introduction

10 Years experience with Sheriff’s Office

Assigned to Administrative Division

Participated in numerous child support warrant roundups during tenure

Somerset County Sheriff’s OfficeSomerset County Sheriff’s OfficeHome to the President of Sheriff’s Association of

New JerseyAuthority to arrestCorrections—County Jail Administration Service of Process: summons, evictions, warrantsCourtroom SecurityPrison TransportMotor Vehicle InvestigationsSpecial Services: Gang & terrorism, school

resources, K-904/21/23

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AgendaAgenda Overview

Knowing Your Population: NJ Gang Statistics

Common Reported Child Support Issues

Safety: 8 Steps For Dealing with Difficult Individuals

Somerset County Sheriff’s Office Warrant Arrest Statistics

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Overview Overview

Understanding who the child support professional is engaging is crucial to the worker’s safety.

Having an understanding of the various dynamics of dealing with difficult people will greatly increase safety for child support case workers.

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Gang Trends In New JerseyGang Trends In New JerseyNew Jersey State Police (NJSP) (2007, p. 3)New Jersey State Police (NJSP) (2007, p. 3)

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Who’s Who and Where?Who’s Who and Where?NJSP (2007, p. 4)NJSP (2007, p. 4)

Five gangs are reported present in fifty or more of New Jersey municipalities:

Bloods (211 towns); Latin Kings (118); Crips (112); MS-13 (65),Pagans Motorcycle Club(57).

A sixth gang, Ñeta, is present in forty-six (46) municipalities statewide.

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Who’s Who and Where? (Con’t)Who’s Who and Where? (Con’t)

The Bloods street gang was named by a large majority (87%) of municipal respondents

Reporting the presence of gangs. No other gang was named by more than half of the

municipalities with a gang presence.

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Gang CharacteristicsGang CharacteristicsNJSP (2007, p. 5)NJSP (2007, p. 5)

Proportion of Municipalities with Gangs Reporting Presence of:

2004 Gang Survey 2007 Gang Survey

Bloods 58% 87%

MS-13 20% 27%

Ñeta 12% 19%

Most municipalities report gangs as ‘thin on the ground’

84% of municipalities report a gang size of fewer than 50 members or less

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Gang Characteristics (Con’t)Gang Characteristics (Con’t)

About 28% of municipalities that reported gangs have a ‘high-intensity’ gang presence.

Sixty towns have five or more of the ‘Top 14’ gangs, and roughly a dozen of these municipalities reported multiple gangs each with memberships of 100 or more.

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Common Gang CrimesCommon Gang CrimesNJSP (2007, p. 6)NJSP (2007, p. 6)

Assaults and aggravated assaults are the most common violent crimes reported.

Sexual assaults are relatively rare. Types of gang theft crimes reported tend to be ‘crimes

of opportunity’ or ‘impulse, rather than crimes requiring planning, resources or organization.

Drug crimes constitute almost half of all criminal activity attributed to gangs.

Retail sales of marijuana and cocaine make up the largest proportion of narcotics crimes attributed to gang members.

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Common Reported Child Support IssuesCommon Reported Child Support Issues

Dealing with individuals in our complex society has become increasingly challenging.

Individuals involved with child support are usually stressed about meeting their financial obligations

Some may be involved with gangs

Many will be young adults that are simply overwhelmed

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Safety: 8 Steps for Dealing with Difficult Safety: 8 Steps for Dealing with Difficult IndividualsIndividuals

DO NOT respond in kind. Hostility often begets hostility.

Take them seriously, have empathy, understand and validate their feelings. Use “I” messages.

Never argue with someone if they are intoxicated. CALL LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Respond to the feelings they are having; not the content of what they are saying.

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8 Steps (continued)8 Steps (continued) Don’t take things personally.

Allow angry individuals to physically escape the situation. If they need to be apprehended, call the police.

Don’t defend yourself by attacking back at them or their character flaws.

Don’t try to solve an emotional issue with logical arguments

(Fiore, 2011 ¶ 1)

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Somerset County Sheriff’s Office Somerset County Sheriff’s Office Child Support Warrant StatisticsChild Support Warrant StatisticsJanuary 1, 2010 - December 31, 2010

Four Hundred Eight Six (486) Processed

In FFY10, Somerset Sheriff’s Office collected $335k in child support

collections