Georgia State Police¶

The Georgia State Police is the state agency that Sheriff Burke calls in to help with the Dahlonega disappearances, and that then finds a pair of night-vision goggles outside the task force's hotel, holds a press conference accusing the FBI of spying on Bill Clinton, and leaks the Biz's name.


Type	State law enforcement
Aliases	State police
Status	Active (as of Walkers 01)
First appearance	Appalachia 04 (requested by Burke)

Overview¶

The state police first appear as help that Sheriff Carter Burke has requested: two deputies plus temporary staff. He asks the team to call them too, and Huell agrees (Appalachia 04). Within days they become the task force's main public enemy.

History¶

The night-vision headset¶

The cold open of Appalachia 06 shows tired state police taking prints and swabs among bushes ringed with caution tape outside the team's hotel. An officer emerges with a night-vision headset and says, "Bag it and tag it, the Secret Service fellows I want to take a look at that." The goggles belonged to the Biz and were connected to his solo adventure the previous night, which was played out privately between Ezra and Andre in the unrecorded Appalachia 05 (Appalachia 06). See The Biz's Night-vision Goggles.

Unrecorded session

What happened in the Biz's night is known only through its consequences, which Andre recapped in Appalachia 06: the Biz came back wearing his clothes from the night before with a badly twisted ankle, the hotel door next to the team's room had been broken down, and the goggles were found in the bushes.

The press conference¶

By Appalachia 07 a state police official has held a press conference claiming the FBI is in Dahlonega surveilling presidential candidate Bill Clinton, with fingerprints from something "recovered from the scene" matching an unnamed FBI agent. McManley passes on the news, and Kurt does not know who Clinton is, and Andre scolds the table that it is October 1992. The sheriff later relays gossip from a state police friend that the Secret Service tipped them off, that they found surveillance equipment, and that its prints matched an employee in the FBI database (Appalachia 07). See Clinton Surveillance Scandal.

Andrew, ordered by Big Bill to keep silent, spends the next sessions avoiding reporters; the Fox 5 crew at the plant catches him on camera (Appalachia 08). See Fox 5 Atlanta.

The aftermath¶

In the epilogue, the Biz appears on Late Night with David Letterman to defend himself. Letterman notes that the state police say they found the goggles in a rose bush and still have not returned them; the Biz says the goggles were stolen by the state police and, of the state police, that "they probably can't afford 'em". He accuses them of endangering him and the case by releasing his name, and describes being yelled at in public while housed in an FBI-provided hotel. The Letterman show bills him as "the most hated cop in America" (Walkers 01).

In the sub-basement beneath the Spud Hut, the Biz says "I wish the state police creeps would come down here. This is way weirder than Bill Clinton." (Appalachia 09).

Trivia¶

The item is a "night vision headset" in Appalachia 06 and "night vision goggles" in the Letterman interview, where Ezra specifies a night-vision monocular. At the table, Ezra looked up the PVS-7 and put its price at roughly $4,500 (Walkers 01).