DA’s office hosting gang seminar, taking steps to dismantle gangs | Crime | Macon.com

Gang investigators and prosecutors from Middle Georgia and beyond will gather Friday in Macon for a seminar and symposium focused on how to dismantle criminal street gangs.

Michael Carlson, a Cobb County prosecutor, is scheduled to teach techniques he used to help reduce De­Kalb County homicides by 40 percent when he worked in the district attorney’s office there.

“He is the foremost prosecutor expert on gang prosecution in Georgia,” said David Cooke, the Macon Judicial Circuit district attorney.

Wally Marchant, an instructor for the Georgia Gang Investigators Association, also is scheduled to speak.

The training, hosted by the district attorney’s office, is the first step in a plan to revamp how the office handles gang crime. Soon prosecutors will shift their priorities in handling drug cases to elevate cases involving gang members who commit drug crimes to fund gang activities and expand gang influence, he said.

via DA’s office hosting gang seminar, taking steps to dismantle gangs | Crime | Macon.com.