ABSTRACT
This chapter shows law enforcement's problems with gangs in Florida with some national perspective and how they have attempted to deal with the gang problem on different levels. Law enforcement had a pretty decent handle overall on combating gang-related crime. In 2008, Plonczynski spoke to a high-ranking member of the Latin Kings in Bradenton, Florida. He asked him why the "Kings" across Florida did not seem to be as organized as they appeared to be in Chicago or New York. This Latin King stated that while he was in prison in Florida that he had spoken to numerous other high-ranking members of criminal gangs on this very topic and none of them quite had an answer for it. It was not the lack of leadership or anything that they could hang their hat on, but rather some things just did not work everywhere, such as Florida.
