Clarification, March 12, 2025 at 1:18 p.m.: This story was clarified to reflect that GCPD’s license plate reader contract restricts access to intelligence between only GCPD and the vendor, according to Chief Scott Ebner.
At a recent community meeting in Brunswick to address a spike in violence targeting teens, the Glynn County Police Department chief made a stunning claim: Street gangs are responsible for 60% of violent crime in the county.
The statistic asserted by Chief Scott Ebner, however, is not supported by the other law enforcement leaders in the county or by booking information from the county jail, according to a review by The Current.
The assertion caused a wave of panic and concern, especially because since the start of the year, there have been three teenage murder victims near predominantly Black neighborhoods in Brunswick. Gang-related violence is something parents and residents fear across the state, but it’s also an issue that can become politicized, given Georgia’s broad legal definition of a gang.
In an interview with The Current, Ebner has since corrected his statement, saying that the 60% figure related to the percentage of homicides and shootings in Glynn County. When pressed, however, the county police chief did not provide information about the period of time that statistic corresponded to. He then rephrased the number as an approximation rather than a statistic.
“I didn’t pull it out of the air. This is just talking to our investigators when I asked them, ‘What can you tell me?’ ‘What are you seeing?’” Ebner said. “Could that change from month-to-month, every six months? Sure it does.”
Brunswick Police Department Interim Chief Angela Smith said that the investigations into the three teenage homicides are active, so she cannot divulge if they are gang-related or not.
A suspect was arrested for the murder of the 15-year-old on January 24, and a separate individual was arrested for two counts of malice murder of the 17 and 19-year-old half brothers on March 10.
Ebner was hired two years ago to lead the police department, following a 27-year stint for New Jersey State Police. He also serves as public safety director for the county. Ebner is the latest outside reformer brought in to lead the GCPD, a department with a history of internal scandal and leadership issues.
The debate about the role gangs have in the county came during a talk by law enforcement leaders at Brunswick High School on March 3 meant to answer community questions and concerns titled, “Bridging the Divide: A Collaborative Discussion.”
Speaking alongside Chief Smith, Glynn County Sheriff Neal Jump and Chief of Schools Police Johnny Davis, Ebner told attendees that the perceived high percentage of gang crime is why he assigned two detectives to focus exclusively on bringing gang cases in Glynn County.
Jump told The Current that he was not told by Ebner about the gang unit in advance of the meeting.
Smith said that she knew that Ebner had some investigators on gang activity but not to the depth that he described. She says that she has a gang investigator position vacant and hopes to fill it.
Both said that Ebner’s original assessment of gang crime — 60% of violent crime — did not seem accurate.
“We’re not saying that gangs don’t exist. We’re not saying that they don’t have affiliations with some of the crime,” Smith said, “But what I’m saying is our current numbers don’t support that.”
Smith went on to explain that individuals may be arrested for a violent crime with a gang affiliation but may not be committing such crimes to further criminal street gang activity.
“A lot of crime is personal,” she said.
Jump conceded gangs are an issue in the county, but plenty of crime is not gang-related.
“I don’t see how the gangs could be doing the 60%,” he said.
Of the 438 detainees in the Glynn County jail, only seven were there for gang-related charges, according to The Current’s review of the March 7 jail log.
‘Related’ vs. ‘motivated’
Georgia’s 1992 law states that a gang “may be established by evidence of a common name or common identifying signs, symbols, tattoos, graffiti, or attire or other distinguishing characteristics, including, but not limited to, common activities, customs, or behaviors.”
The legislature beefed up the law’s punishments in 2023, as Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr made gang prosecutions their signature priorities. The state’s emergency management agency has disbursed millions of dollars in gang prosecution funds to police and prosecutors across the state.
Currently, crimes in the state that often get described as gang-related do not necessarily mean that gangs caused the crime, according to Jose Ramirez, President of the Georgia Gang Investigators Association.
Instead, that term could mean that either the offender or victim was a gang member or an active associate of a gang, he said.
Ramirez said that the broad definition includes offenses like driving under the influence or possession of drugs. Even if police identify the suspect as a gang member or active associate, the assumption is not automatically that this is a crime on behalf of a gang. They need evidence to prove that the crimes were motivated by gang affiliation, he said.
“You have to have evidence of a nexus — that the crime was committed in furtherance of the gang,” Ramirez said, “And if you lack that, then you just simply have a gang-related crime.”
Gangs can be based in neighborhoods, regions or on national organizations. In December 2022, a federal grand jury indicted more than 70 people on charges relating to drug trafficking in South Georgia, and the defendants included “members of the Ghost Face Gangsters working with affiliates of other criminal street gangs including the Aryan Brotherhood, Bloods, and Gangster Disciples,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
Ebner told The Current the department is actively investigating gang cases in Glynn County, including shootings and non-violent crimes.
“We’re seeing it more and more through internet and social media-based frauds and scams that we believe are being furthered and perpetuated by criminal gang members to further their criminal activity,” Ebner said.
‘A total lack of communication’
Questions about gang investigations reopened longstanding animosity about law enforcement collaboration in Glynn.
Jump, who has made no secret of his wish to lead law enforcement operations in the county, said if Glynn County Police shared its information and technology more often, the county would have a better grasp on crime, like the recent surge in Brunswick shootings with teenage victims.
“Not only are officers gonna get killed or hurt but the citizens are gonna pay because there is no sharing of information from the county (police department) to us,” he said.
This includes automatic license plate reader technology like Flock Cameras, controlled by GCPD, and sharing of regular intelligence, Jump said.
Ebner said its contract with Flock, entered into by the Board of Commissioners last September, is restricted between GCPD and Flock. Letting another agency in to review the license plate intelligence would risk GCPD “potentially losing its own access,” he said.
“The Sheriff’s office would have to enter into its own and separate agreement with FLOCK to access the cameras that GCPD has entered into with an agreement via a contract with FLOCK,” Ebner wrote in an email on March 11. “As the Chief of Police in Glynn County, I am not permitted to enter into a contract with a vendor or company, the Board of Commissioners enter into those contracts.”
The chief defended his organization’s approach to investigating violent crime, and says he tries to work with other agencies as often as he can.
“When somebody’s saying we’re not collaborating, it means sometimes that they don’t think that they’re getting the information but maybe they’re not sharing it,” Ebner said.
Ebner, Jump and Smith all agreed on one thing: gangs in Glynn are becoming increasingly more effective in getting youth members involved.
Thirty years ago, “we didn’t see shooters that were 14 years old,” Ebner said. “We see that now. And they’re trying to mimic or become part of a gang or affiliated with a gang, and some are actually gang members. … It’s a difficult task to overcome especially when they’re that young.”
Smith noted that street gangs nowadays have evolved the ways that they operate, and it takes a breadth of knowledge to be familiar with the gang members’ street names and lingo.
“Our gangs are so hybrid … They cross all kinds of cultural boundaries today that they would not have 20 years ago,” she said.
Jump expressed that he hopes parents and guardians will make efforts to be more vigilant of what their children are involved in.
“Why is your 13-year-old out at one o’clock in the morning?” he said.
The Current’s data journalist, Maggie Lee, assisted the reporting of this story.
Update on March 11, 2025: This story was updated to reflect arrests made in the teenage murder victims cases.
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