Countryman, Mathis, Henderson welcome the addition of a GBI criminal street gang task force

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Last week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a state budget that included significant funding to stand up a Gang Task Force based in Columbus.

The state is putting about $5 million into standing up that Gang Task Force this summer.

Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson, Police Chief Stoney Mathis and Sheriff Greg Countryman welcome the help.

The task force included in Gov. Brian Kemp’s budget will add nine GBI gang investigators.

They will focus on the gang problems in Columbus and the region. There is also additional money in that budget for a prosecutor out of the Attorney General’s Office and an additional investigator.

“It’s  another milestone in the legacy of Richard Smith always looking for ways to make the community better,” Henderson said of the late lawmaker who pushed for this funding before his untimely death in January.

Henderson said the task force will allow additional reach into the gang community.

“I think it means that our  police officers, our sheriff’s deputies, they’re going to have some assistance in focusing on an area that we desperately need to focus on, and that’s the gang crime in Columbus,” Henderson said. “We already have some specialty units in the police department, and it’s a sure format,  but this is going to be an area of policing that is focused solely on gangs, and they’re going to be looking to make cases in federal court to put these folks away for a very, very long time. And I think that can’t help but make the community feel a little bit safer.”

Like Mathis, Countryman said it means more boots on the ground in high-crime areas.

“It means that we have a greater force that can deal with the current gang issue that we have in Muscogee County, working collectively with our federal partners, the GBI, the state troopers and our local partners with Columbus Police Department,” Countryman said. “We have a greater impact because we can put a greater dent into the work that we’ve been doing now.”

And gangs translate into multiple crimes, Countryman said.

“So, it will be a greater threat to the gang community because when you think about gangs, you have to think about cartel movement, you have to think about human trafficking, you have to think about fugitive, you have to think about drugs,” Countryman said. “You have to think about scams and everything. And so  to have  the resources to come from the state level, along with the GSP working in these type of cases, it puts us  in the ballpark of where we need to be to have a greater impact.”

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL.