THOMASVILLE — Local lawmen who provided security at the G-8 Summit on Georgia’s East Coast returned home with once-in-a-lifetime experiences under their respective belts and several humorous anecdotes to relay.

The local group began to draw attention as soon as they hit U.S. 84 East on Friday, June 4.

The 15 law enforcement units had headlights on for the journey. Oncoming motorists thought they were encountering a funeral procession and pulled off the highway.

With the exception of two officers, locals providing security at the event are members of the Special Response Team. Team members are officers from Thomas County Sheriff’s and Thomasville Police departments.

“We were part of the route security detail,” said Lt. Tim Watkins, sheriff’s department chief investigator. Others participating in the detail were from local law enforcement agencies statewide and from Georgia departments of Natural Resources and Motor Vehicle Safety.

They secured a route dignitaries would have taken in the event inclement weather prevented them from traveling by helicopter from an air force base at Savannah to the summit site on Sea Island, Deputy Mike Fielding explained.

“We were going to shut down I-95,” Watkins said.

When heads of states from G8 nations traveled on a road, no one else could. Officers closed roads between Sea Island and St. Simons Island while conferences were under way.

“No one could be on the road, including law enforcement agencies not assigned to secure the route,” Watkins said.

Those providing summit security were involved in a number of intelligence briefings before the event. Watkins, noting terrorist-related intelligence information, said the summit was the most secure place in the United States last week.

“We were told it was the largest security event in U.S. history,” Fielding said.

The Brunswick police chief told Watkins his agency responds to about 100 incidents daily. Last week, the department responded to about three a day.

“The Chinese had a stationary display of the torture in Chinese prisons,” Watkins said. Participants wanted world leaders to be aware of conditions in the prisons.

On Thursday, the last day of the summit, about 100 unorganized protesters tried to get onto Sea Island. The subject of their protest was not clear.

“You name it, they had it,” Watkins said, adding that he saw some signs conveying an environmental message.

Fielding said the death last week of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan took a lot of media attention off summit protesters.

The event began to wind down as summit participants left early to pay their respects to the memory of the 40th U.S. president.



Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 220.