The Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was in Northwest Georgia last week.  Vic Reynolds is a native of Northwest Georgia and former Floyd County police officer.  He has also served as a chief magistrate judge, prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. He was elected as Cobb’s District Attorney in 2012 and was appointed the top job at the GBI by Governor Kemp in 2019.

Reynolds visited the Exchange Club of Rome on Friday to discuss what the state agency is doing to combat illegal street gangs.

The Rome News Tribune reported that under Reynolds, the bureau developed the first ever statewide GBI-driven gang task force, which focuses on large scale RICO cases involving hundreds of gang members. The group now works all of north Georgia and recently expanded into central Georgia to combat high numbers of reported drive-by shootings and aggravated assaults.

Reynolds also touched on the newly implemented statewide gang database The database has a plethora of intelligence about well-known gangs and their members. Phase II of the project is expected to roll out in early 2022 and will allow local police agencies to access information about gangs.

RNT