![[ j o y . t h e . c u r i o u s ]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_80,h_80,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9a3fc6e9-2c7b-49f3-a947-5510d6ac2bd3_500x500.png)
![[ j o y . t h e . c u r i o u s ]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/e_trim:10:white/e_trim:10:transparent/h_72,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff10a4cb8-9c26-4c77-a86d-fd0df8c2f58f_1344x256.png)
![[ j o y . t h e . c u r i o u s ]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_36,h_36,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9a3fc6e9-2c7b-49f3-a947-5510d6ac2bd3_500x500.png)
Sentenced to College - Chapter 3
The rise of gang activity in Willmar, Minnesota
New here? Start from the beginning...
Getting a handle on the problem
In January 2007, Minnesota Lawyer magazine interviewed Willmar Police Chief Jim Kulset about his decade-long efforts to combat gangs and drug trafficking in his rural Minnesota community of about 19,000 residents.
At that time, Kulset sat on the Minnesota Gang and Drug Oversight Council, an advisory group that had been established by the legislature in 1997 to oversee the state’s new Gang Strike Force. Ten years later, Kulset was at the Capitol in St. Paul once again to request more state funding to help local law enforcement agencies get a handle on the rapid rise of gang activity in rural Minnesota.
It hadn’t always been this way. Back in the early 1990s, Kulset had been working as a detective sergeant in Willmar and had just started noticing some gang-related graffiti popping up around town. Probably just kids. Nothing serious.
But then, it was.