The East Coast Gang Investigator's Association (ECGIA) was established in 1998 after an enormous outcry for information relating to the East Coast gang situation. The ECGIA. formed from a small group of dedicated Law Enforcement Officials that shared gang related information with one another on a regular basis. As the street gangs and their members grew, so did the networking between these Law Enforcement Officials and others. The need for assistance, training and networking, also grew as these gangs migrated into new communities. Currently the ECGIA has approximately over 2,200 members from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, throughout the Midwest, West Coast, and Canada, and we are continually growing. The ECGIA is a non-profit organization that continually strives to provide LawEnforcement Officials with the training and resources they need to stay at the forefront of the ever changing street gang trends and identifiers. The ECGIA and its members go beyond to serve and protect, by training and educating the parents, teachers, professionals, and youth of our communities,in street gang awareness and identification, this is what we the ECGIA, are all about.