Hall County Sheriff’s Office deputies will return to Lake Lanier on Friday, May 1, with a new patrol boat that is meant to handle the busy summer season more safely and efficiently. The 2026 lake patrols are set to run through October, with two boats expected on the water during peak holidays.
The new 29-foot cabin rigid inflatable boat was bought last year with $280,000 in asset forfeiture funds and arrived from Fluid Marine in North Carolina late in the 2025 summer season, when it saw only limited use. It is powered by twin Mercury Marine 225 engines and outfitted with Raymarine electronics and FLIR thermal imaging technology, giving deputies tools they did not have on the older vessel.
The Marine Patrol Unit works with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and its deputies are responsible for lake patrols, security at lakefront parks and enforcing boating rules. Capt. Michael Mount said the department saw the need for a better-equipped boat years ago as visitor traffic on Lanier continued to grow, and said the cabin is climate controlled so deputies can work in all kinds of weather.
The new vessel does not replace the sheriff’s older patrol boat, a 2016 Sea Chaser 24 HFC center console that will stay in service as backup. That matters because the unit has only two deputies assigned to it, and during heavy weekends such as Memorial Day and the Fourth of July both boats are expected to be deployed.
In practice, the upgrade means Hall County is heading into the summer boating season with more reach and more flexibility on a lake that draws large crowds and constant traffic. The unanswered question is not whether the unit has more capability now — it does — but whether two deputies and two vessels will be enough when Lake Lanier is at its busiest.
