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 was formed from a small group of dedicated Law Enforcement Officials that shared gang-related information with one another on a regular basis. As 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 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 law enforcement 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.