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Law enforcement on alert after gang threats
Posted: 08.29.2011 at 8:52 PM
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APD officials say specific members of their department are receiving threats after a mass gang arrest
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Updated with video; The Albany Police Department received intel about threats against specific police officers relating to the recent mass gang member arrests

ALBANY, GA -- Local law enforcement recently arrested nearly 60 members from prominent gangs in Albany: Approximately 54 from a mass arrest and nearly six more after an attempted shooting on an Albany Police officer.

Now police are seeing retaliation from gangs.

Albany Police Chief John Proctor says their intel information shows calls saying that gangs were going to hurt police officers, primarily those with the Albany Police Gang Task Force.

“As early as last week we were receiving some information -- rather intel -- coming into officers that there were going to be incidents targeting specific officers,” says APD Media Manager Phyllis Banks.

The Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office says they personally haven’t received any threats, but say they expected some retaliation when they began the investigation that that led to the mass arrests.

“You're constantly on high alert, but when something of this magnitude happens where a police officer is shot at, it puts everybody in the arena of public safety on high alert,” says Dougherty County Sheriff Kevin Sproul.

When police began receiving these threats, law enforcement officials say Proctor held a meeting with his team to discuss tactical ways to protect themselves from any of these threats.

“What Chief Proctor did is he talked with everyone and made them aware that they need to keep in mind that they have a job to do but at the same time remain steady on the training they have received as police officers,” says Banks.

The Sheriff’s Office is also analyzing what they can do to better protect their own, especially when more mass gang arrests are on the horizon.

“We continue to look over everything we have in place to make sure that we're doing -- the administration is doing -- everything it can to keep our employees as safe as possible,” says Sproul.

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