Wichita ? A resurgence of gang activity in the state’s largest city is being attributed to a jump in 14- to 17-year-olds who are trying to gain gang acceptance, Wichita police said Tuesday.

Gang activity in the city had been declining for several years, but a recent spate of drive-by shootings has residents on the south side of Wichita concerned for their safety.

After having only one drive-by shooting in 2004, there have been five in the city’s Fabrique neighborhood alone in the past few months, police Lt. Jeff Easter told 50 members of the Fabrique Neighborhood Assn.

A brawl in the food court of a local mall earlier this month also was gang-related, he said after the meeting.

“It’s like a cancer — it grows, and it will spread if it’s not tended to,” Easter said.

Easter said new gangs were trying to put down roots in Wichita, and some of the recent violence in the city is linked to ongoing disputes between rival gangs.

“We are starting to see second- and third-generation gang members here in Wichita,” Easter said.

It’s no coincidence, he said, that most gang members police deal with come from broken homes.

“They go out and seek other ways to get love,” he said.

It may be time for Kansas to start considering a law like one in Florida that forbids gang recruitment in schools, he said, adding that gangs start recruiting members as early as elementary school.

Easter said police and schools were doing what they could to combat gangs, but neighborhoods and parents can play a big role in stifling gangs by keeping an eye on what’s going on. He said gangs thrived in areas plagued by intimidation or indifference.

For instance, people should report graffiti as soon as they see it, especially if it has been crossed out, Easter said. He said crossing out one gang’s graffiti by another indicated that a confrontation was likely.

“It’s the newspaper of the street,” he said of graffiti, adding that it’s also a warning sign that gang activity is or soon will be a problem.