Gang Prevention Takes Teamwork

Lieutenant Jessica Tyler with the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office is a team player. She heads up the Opt Out gang prevention program that works with eight middle and high schools in the Albuquerque Public Schools district. She is not alone. Teams of school resource officers, social workers, gang detectives,Youth Development Inc. (YDI) specialists, and juvenile probation officers join together to lend a helping hand to high risk students and their families. "It's part intervention and part prevention. We try to get as many resources available as possible and go do home visits with kids that we've identified as being at risk through the school resource officers," says Tyler.