Alert: Tourists Headed to St. Simons Island and the King & Prince Hotel – Beware Glynn County Police
I drove 325 miles from Dunwoody, GA, to St. Simons Island (SSI) on April 14, 2026, and planned to stay at the King & Prince Hotel (K & P) for three nights. I checked into the hotel around 5 PM, then met up with my old friend, John “Coach” Allen. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and evening and I headed back to the K & P about 10 PM.
I am an old friend of St. Simons Island and the King & Prince. I have visited many times this past decade and consider St. Simons my home beach. My growing appreciation of SSI has been expressed in three popular web pages. Each describes my love of the place and deepening involvement.
https://arnoldheller.org/st-simons-island-georgia-a-love-story/
https://arnoldheller.org/st-simons-island-ii-hurricane-matthew-s-influence/
The first web page describes SSI’s beauty and special locations that caused me to fall in love with the island. The second showed my concern after Hurricane Michael. A week later, as SSI re-opened for business, I was there to photograph the damage and capture the storm’s impact. Apparently, I am the only human who bothered and the page has become the “go-to” link of sorts for people seeking information.
John Allen and I have investigated the causes of Sea Island’s sand replenishment program upon Gould’s Inlet and St. Simon’s East Beach where all of the lost sand washes up on. Gould’s Inlet is choked with Sea Island sand and forces some of the incoming tide onto East Beach where they have formed sizable streams or lakes. The solution is to dredge Gould’s Inlet and put the sand back on Sea Island beaches. The tidal streams will dry up and go away – end of problem.
Has anybody else bothered to bring this issue to the public? Or solve the problem? Glynn County is a media vacuum because small market Brunswick’s newspaper and TV studios news coverage are financially limited.
For example, the night of April 14, 2026, when I left John and drove about 20 miles an hour down Ocean Blvd. I am 80 years old, was tired, and took it easy. I reached the corner of Arnold Road and Ocean Blvd., and was only three blocks from my room.
The corner of Arnold and Ocean is full of restaurants. This commercial node was shut down for the evening and I was the only moving vehicle. I slowed down for a right turn that I have taken hundreds of times before. I cannot remember if I came to a full stop, but I was driving cautiously and no one was endangered if I hadn’t.
Arnold Road is very narrow street that is lined with people’s dwellings and parked cars. After my right turn, three Glynn County Police cars containing four officers with lights flashing were after me expecting my 2015 Nissan Juke to pull over. If I had, four cars would have blocked the road and become a circus. The four officers, apparently, did not care that they would have disturbed the neighborhood.
In 45 years of coming to this intersection, I have never seen a police car let alone three who pursued a retired social studies teacher as if he were a terrorist or escaped convict. I found no safe place for cars to stop until I reached the hotel parking lot that easily accommodated this scary traffic stop, about a quarter of a mile distance.
The four officers demanded that I get out of the car and stand, a form of corporal punishment if used by a teacher. I protested that I was tired. “Please let me stay in my car.” I thought about calling 911 on this ICE-tricked out foursome full of visible, dangling weaponry.
I was threatened with handcuffs so I stood for twenty minutes while this Keystone Cop operation disrespectfully ordered the old guy around. I kept looking at the hotel entrance for an employee to come outside and view the police circus happening right across the street. No one bothered.
Is this a regular an occurrence at the hotel – three police cars with lights flashing chasing down a K & P guest and mistreating him? Is the staff jaded as if they had seen this movie before? If so, may we assume the hotel area is unsafe.
Finally, the lead officer who behaved a lot like Sean Penn in One Battle After Another to show me that he was in control charged me with three tickets; failure to come to full stop before making right turn, failure to stop for an emergency vehicle, and an expired tag. Three police cars chasing a tourist to hand out an alleged right turn violation are not emergency vehicles.
Brunswick is a poor city. The police department cannot afford to input tickets into the data system for two months. I will contact the GCPD on June 14, 2026, to learn if I’m in the system yet and to inform them that my constitutional right to speedy justice has already been violated.
Dekalb County, for the past 54 years, annually sent me my new tag in the mail at birthday time. Last year, the State of Georgia stopped this and Dekalb citizens have to go to the tag office for renewal. I put that off unfortunately and am willing to pay for it – this is one charge that I admit to. I renewed my tag first thing when I got back to Dunwoody.
The other two charges are wrong and this nightmarish incident has ruptured my warm feelings for the island and hotel. I emailed a letter of complaint first to the Assistant Chief who did not respond. I then sent the email to the Chief who did not respond.
I next contacted Professional Standards who did respond and organized an investigation by Internal Affairs. I also contacted the Patrol Commander whose spokesman, Joe Hall, got back to me and offered to mitigate this situation too. He asked; “Sure you’re okay with Captain Hergaty?”
I heard concern in his voice and should have accepted his offer. But I said; “Hegarty was the first to respond and has acted professionally. I guess so.”
Hegarty had informed that reports are usually completed in 45 days. The Internal Affairs report arrived on May 27.
John and I were dining at the Mullet Bay Restaurant the night of April 15. I told him that I planned to report the incident to the police administration. “Good luck. The Brunswick boys in blue are noted for falling in line for their buddies.”
“It’s less and less blue today, more and more camouflage. Now they look like they are invading Falluja.”
John’s prediction of likely rejection proved correct. I still don’t know why three police cars were in hot pursuit of me. Hegarty had promised to disclose that and didn’t.
My pathway forward appears now to be limited to contesting two of the three tickets when they are finally input into the system on June 14. I live five hours away by car and to fight this from Dunwoody is difficult. If I challenge these charges in court, I will personally have to appear or hire a lawyer to represent me.
I left the K & P after two nights, canceled my third night. This cost the hotel $350 and Glynn County $90 in revenue. I was planning a conference of friends in October which probably would have dropped $5,000 or so in the K & P and an estimated $1,500 in tax revenue for Brunswick. I will instead hold this conference in Atlantic / Neptune Beach, Florida. Would you expose your dear friends to a possible confrontation?
I asked the hotel manager to jointly file a complaint against the police for possibly targeting their guests. She conferred with her board; they sympathized but declined. The manager admitted hearing a few things in the past but I was the first to report it to them. The matter is now on their radar though. That’s nice.
I feel that the police foolishly hurt a dear friend of the island and unless a fair judgement is ultimately arrived at, I don’t know if I can ever return. When you hurt the one who loves you, it’s hard for them to forgive.
This is a teachable moment for the hotel and Glynn County Police Department.