The evening news is filled with frightening stories of gang-related crime in the city: A drive-by shooting in a residential area, a stabbing during a convenience-store robbery.

It’s easy to feel a false sense of security while living on a tree-lined suburban street, miles from the inner city.

But when gang grafitti suddenly appears on a fence just around the corner, residents begin to ask, “Is our neighborhood safe?”

Or is the perception worse than the reality?

No longer an urban problem, gangs have surfaced throughout the area — and villages like Bolingbrook and Romeoville are no exception.

At the beginning of the school year, two teens hid in a Bolingbrook High School bathroom, waiting to settle a disagreement. In the end, a 15-year-old student suffered severe stab wounds.

In Romeoville, two separate incidents of gunfire earlier this year were later reported as being gang-related.

In March, gunshots were fired at a home in the 300 block of Kent Avenue.

Police believe the incident may have been a case of a gang member shooting at the wrong house.

And in April, a police received a report of a window damaged by a gunshot in the 100 block of Fairfield Drive.

Police reports indicate a fight had broken out inside the home approximately 30 minutes before the shooting.

But area police insist that where there is gang activity, there is also enforcement.

The facts:

Many towns and school districts may be in denial when it comes to the existence of gangs. They simply don’t think they have a youth gang problem.

But according to Cliff Akiyama, a Certified Gang Specialist by the Virginia Gang Investigators Association and a Certified Gang Professional by the East Coast Gang Investigators Association, gangs are everywhere — and the dangers from them are present every day.

At a Valley View School District Safe Schools Conference earlier this year, Akiyama reported there are 24,500 active youth gangs in the United States, with more than 750,000 members.

More than nine of 10 members are male and 78 percent are minorities, he said.

According to officials of the Romeoville Police Department, although the area is starting to experience a resurgence of gang membership, police feel they are on top of it.

And while Bolingbrook has seen obvious gang involvement, it doesn’t appear to be on the rise, said Police Chief Kevin McCarthy.

Both police departments report that while gang-related incidents are taken seriously, they are few and far between.

“We’re not hiding our heads in the sand,” said Romeoville Police Chief Andrew Barto. “We see a problem, we acknowledge it and we attack it.”

Stepping up and taking notice is key, said Chief McCarthy.

“We can’t sit back and say it doesn’t happen here. You have to take steps to correct it,” he said.

Area police admit their towns do have a gang presence, but rather than fighting turf wars over drugs and guns as seen in Chicago, suburban gang members may fight over a mean look or a shove in a school hallway.

“Do we have gangs? Yes, but it’s the PG version,” said Romeoville Police Cmdr. Kenneth Kroll.

“Before, gangs were about socioeconomics in urban districts fighting over turf — that’s not the case anymore,” said McCarthy. “We’re not a ghetto. Things have changed. Everyone — Naperville, Romeoville, Woodridge — we all have gang issues. But today, we deal with a lot less aggressive gang activity.”

The Romeoville Police Department confirms knowledge of at least 103 known gang members in the village — claiming affiliation to the Latin Kings, LaRaza, Gangster Disciples, Party Players and Vice Lords.

Bolingbrook police deal with the same gangs, including the Latin Kings and Vice Lords, who, according to police, appear to be the most overt about their affiliations.

As dictated by the Illinois Department of Corrections dating back to the 1960s, gang structure in the Chicagoland area could be broken down into two opposing factions: People and Folk.

The Latin Kings and Vice Lords generally align with the People, and are pitted against the Gangster Disciples and the 2-6 Nation, who are aligned with the Folk.

Harsher and more organized crime was perpetrated by gangs in the 1990s, said officials from both the Romeoville and Bolingbrook police departments.

But the hard-core members known to be aligned with area gangs have either been incarcerated or moved on, police said.

In 1993, the Village of Bolingbrook instituted its first gang unit.

“With the village’s blessing, we started the gang unit back then and we targeted the gang’s leaders,” said McCarthy. “We cut the head off the snake and we took away their organization. Now, we still have activity, but we are not seeing any organization or leadership.”

According to Bolingbrook Lt. Mike Rompa, the majority of the time, offenders involved in an incident claim to be in one gang this week and another the next.

Kroll agreed, explaining that “wannabes” are prevalent throughout the area.

“That’s not a real gang member,” Rompa said. “These are kids wanting to attach themselves to something bigger. Historically, fights are breaking out over someone bruising their pride.”

Even graffiti, once a sure sign of gangs claiming an area, is not always an indicator of gang presence, Rompa said.

“There is a misperception of gangs in certain areas because of taggers/graffiti artists, who are just that — artists, and not affiliated with any gang,” said Rompa. “While there is some graffiti, it’s not all gang-related.”

Both Bolingbrook and Romeoville have instituted ordinances that require the immediate removal of graffiti — in Bolingbrook, within 24 hours and in Romeoville, within 72 hours.

But Kroll said cases of true criminal defacement to property can tip off the police department that there may be a problem in the area — something the department follows closely.

Gangs, guns and triggers for violence

While in the past year, Romeoville has not suffered any gang-related homicides, the village has seen nine instances of shots being fired.

At least six of the shots were aimed at homes in what police believe was gang retaliation. The previous year, the village experienced a total of six cases of shots fired.

Romeoville Det. Kenneth Kroll said that while local gang members may have access to guns, they’re not walking the streets with them. Both Romeoville and Bolingbrook police report they recovered about 12 guns this year — up from 10 last year.

Bolingbrook Police Chief Kevin McCarthy said his department sees more cases involving guns in domestic disturbances than those related to gangs. But that’s not to say gang members don’t have access to guns.

“It would be naïve to think otherwise,” said McCarthy.

Both police departments agree that known gang members aren’t looking to kill each other in the streets.

“It is more about claiming their respect,” said Kroll. “The biggest issue is gangs flipping signs and showing ‘disrespect.’ That’s all it takes. But that’s all they are fighting over.”

The hierarchy of need theory developed by Abraham Maslow circa 1943 examines the psychological needs of humans, starting with their basic need for survival — air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat and sex to procreate.

Next in order of precedence comes a set of needs for such things as safety and security, Maslow theorized. According to Maslow, once an individual feels safe and secure, some degree of need for love and belonging come into play. Need for respect from others and self-respect follows.

It is this need to belong that Kroll tends to see most when dealing with gang members or “wannabes” — a need that seems to be typical in the suburbs.

He said that while most of their basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter are being met, problems begin to arise with belonging and respect.

Based on Maslow’s theory and confirmed by police is the premise that young people join gangs for a variety of reasons including peer pressure, a need to belong, acceptance, emulating older siblings, a feeling of power and affluence, the lure of financial gain, socioeconomics, low self worth, low moral/ethical background and lack of a support system.