Iowa’s Woodbury County ends anti-gang program

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Northwest Iowa’s Woodbury County has decided to end a 12-year-old anti-gang program.

The Sioux City Journal says the County Board voted Tuesday to eliminate the position of gang prevention specialist. The job had been filled by Leo Miller, who died May 8.

The Juvenile Detention Department hired Miller in July 2000 to coordinate gang prevention training and to work with juveniles in custody.

Mark Olsen, who runs the county Juvenile Detention Center and oversaw Miller’s position, told the newspaper that “gangs are not the problems they were in the past.”

He says the Sioux City Police Department has a task force to monitor gang activity.