LAKELAND, Fla. — "We've got problems with kids shooting kids and primarily they're gangbangers," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference in September.
A few weeks later, another press conference was held, where another man was shot. The sheriff said both the suspect and victim were known gang members.
“I would describe the problem in Polk County and Lakeland no different than every other city and county, with the same population across this nation,” Judd told 10 Investigates.
He says kids are shooting kids, and that’s a problem wherever you live. A problem he says the community is working to get in front of.
“These are hardcore criminals who will shoot you graveyard dead just for the thrill of it. That's who we're focused on,” Judd said.
10 Investigates took a deeper dive into how bad the problem is in Polk County. There have been 23 gang-related shootings in the first nine months of this year. When we reached out to other agencies in the Bay Area — such as the Pinellas Sheriff’s Office, they told us they don’t track gang statistics.
St. Petersburg Police told us the same thing adding, "We don’t have organized gangs in the city, we have loosely knit neighborhood groups, mostly teens, that may have issues with each other at times."
“Do you know why they don’t keep statistics? Because they don't want to report what I'm reporting to you," Judd said. "And they said, oh, we don't have gangs, we have a lot. That is, not being factual and transparent with the community."
Judd says since they launched a task force paying close attention to the issue, they know they are getting results.
“We've already taken 48 guns off the street made 555 arrests and 89 of them were gang members,” Judd said. “So please don't do your story and lead anyone to believe that we've got a problem in Polk County, what you're seeing is we've got solutions in Polk County.”
Mike Cooper is the Director at the Dream Center of Lakeland. He says a decade or so ago, Lakeland had a real issue with gangs but that’s not the case now.
“I think, I think community, community is everything,” Cooper said.
He says his center invites the community in, seeing an average of 500 kids a week, but they also head out when needed, If an act of violence takes place in town that’s where they head, bringing games, food, and community together to let the kids in the area know that they have a safe place to turn.
“This is not rocket science. But it's taking the time and the energy just to be there,” Cooper said. "This is not a perfect city by any means. But I'm going to tell you something, it's quick to, you know, take care of its own and quick, very quick to take care of issues that's going on.”
And Judd says they’ll focus on the ones that turn the wrong way, “I'm telling you, the ones we're dealing with are bad actors, and dangerous people. And if you cross them, you can be the next one shot. Because they don't care. They truly don't care.”