Everyone's insisting something should be done about gang violence. But is it really as bad as some are making it out to be? Ask those who've lived here their whole lives and they'll tell you they've seen it all before. But this week it's gotten a whole lot of attention, as a major "crisis". City Council woman Sonia Rodriguez even implied our city could be in a "state of emergency." But what are the facts?

We have seen a lot of gang violence in Yakima over the summer. Just a few weeks ago at this 7-11 on Yakima Avenue two men were shot. But can we say it's the worst the city has ever seen? " We've obviously had a very large increase in the number of gang shootings that we're trying our best to get a handle on that situation, but we're still not up or even close to where we were in the mid 90s," said Greg Copeland with the Yakima Police Department.

This year Yakima police have seen 3,200 felonies. That's with a population of more than 84,000. Compare that to 1994 when there were 4,100 felonies. and about 25,000 fewer people. 1995 is considered the worst crime year for Yakima. There were 4,600 felonies committed that year. Like a shooting in downtown Yakima where three people were injured. And there were even shots fired at the Yakima mall that year, in broad daylight.

Breaking it down even more, aggravated assault is often tied to gang violence. There were 211 cases in 1994. More than 180 in 1995. Today, 88. That's half the number of crimes per capita. As we keep growing, violence is actually dropping. It may have to do with the creation of the gang unit back in 2002. Copeland said, " Our main way of dealing with gang crime back then was through investigators working behind a desk mostly assigned to gang cases, where we have a little different way of looking at it these days."

A full gang unit. Emphasis Patrols and gang education programs. The amount of violence in our city isn't good but it's been much worse before.

Would it help to get guns off the streets? Police Chief Sam Granato said earlier this week he wanted to start up a "Cash for Guns" program with local Crime Stoppers. KIMA wanted to know how this program has worked in other areas. In Toronto the Crime Stoppers unit has been buying back guns for the past four years. They call it a success. Before then, they were dealing with growing gang violence. " All of a sudden gun violence was now not just happening in specific areas or in the area where the gang members were staying. It was happening within the city where people were walking to work and living and so on. So we take on illegal handgun off the street that could prevent the killing or a murder, whatever, then to us it was successful," said Lorne Simon, Chair for Toronto Crime Stoppers.

But others have failed. The Oakland California Police Department held a gun buy-back in December of last year. They tell me they saw too many gun dealers because they didn't specify "illegal" guns. Toronto Crime Stoppers says to be successful you need to have the money to pay out the tipsters, get the message out with good advertising, and constantly update the community on just how many guns have been seized.