Participants take a break.

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PARTICIPANTS TAKE A BREAK during a four-day training session on prosecution techniques to combat gang activity across Florida, put on by Attorney General Bill McCollum's office in October. The course was an intense workshop for experienced prosecutors and investigators on how to dismantle gangs using Florida's RICO laws. The Palm Beach Bureau of the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution hosted the seminar, along with the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office and the Palm Beach State Attorney's Office. "I'm proud of the efforts of attorneys in my office and those on the front lines around Florida to come up with creative and effective strategies to attack gang activity," said Attorney General McCollum. Training for the gang prosecutions seminar was provided by the National Guard's Multijurisdictional Counterdrug Task Force training group. Approximately 50 students attended, including assistant state attorneys from Palm Beach and Martin counties, as well as federal, state, and local law enforcement professionals. Prosecutors worked with a team of detectives in a workshop format using a hypothetical set of facts from a gang case. They identified gang members using the statutory definition, and then worked on the facts to develop a prosecutable case against the most egregious offenders in the scenario.