GBI’s Middle Georgia Gang Task Force moving to permanent facility in Macon
A law enforcement agency targeting criminal gang activity will be relocated in Middle Georgia with the goal of improving public safety.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Middle Georgia Gang Task Force is moving to a permanent facility in downtown Macon.
Representatives from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies spoke at the new facility Wednesday about their efforts to improve public safety in middle Georgia.
According to Bibb County Sheriff David Davis, the new location will help strengthen collaboration between agencies.
“It’s the importance of geography,” Sheriff Davis said. “Having them right here in Macon, right here just a few blocks away from our investigators so that they can compare notes. The GBI, they will be doing investigations throughout this whole region.”
The announcement follows the GBI’s expansion into middle Georgia, one year after the gang task force was created in 2019.
The task force is currently housed in a temporary facility in Milledgeville. It will be moving to the former Macon-Bibb Traffic Control Center once upgrades to the building are complete.
“This particular space that became available and is very workable for what the GBI wanted,” Sheriff Davis said. “They needed some certain requirements for the space, and this space will really fit that once it gets built out.”
Some of the agencies partnering with the GBI include Macon Regional Crimestoppers, the Ocmulgee Drug Task Force, the ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia.
According to GBI director Michael Register, the GBI’s existing partnership with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office has been great so far. He says the new facility will help the GBI make the community safer.
“The big thing is, is that now our Middle Georgia Gang Task Force has a hub to work from, a center of operations,” Register said. “I think that it’s going to make it more effective and more efficient and give us more continuity throughout the state and Middle Georgia area.”
Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller says the cost to upgrade the facility was between $200,000-$300,000. Once funds are appropriated, work on the facility is expected to be complete within 60 days.
