President’s Message – April 2025

Greetings, fellow GACP members

We at GACP have been busy in the first half of 2025. First let me thank Chief Derrick Austin (Locust Grove Police Department) for hosting the Executive Board meeting in February. In that meeting, we created a committee to look at how better to improve our state certification board. I would like to thank Chief Janet Moon and Chief Mark Scott for volunteering to chair the committee. They are charged with closely looking at our program to suggest improvements, as well as looking at other states to see if we can incorporate some best practices to enhance our delivery of the program.

Executive Director Ayers and his staff are busy putting the final touches on the plan to renovate the new GACP headquarters. When completed, this will house all GACP and give us the ability to expand our range of classes. In the coming months, Executive Director Ayers will be sending out the date of the ribbon cutting ceremony, and I would like to see our membership show up and be proud of this accomplishment.

Executive director Ayers has also stayed on top of this year’s legislative session. He and his staff are to be thanked for the tremendous job they did putting together the 2025 Chief’s Day at the Capitol. We had a tremendous amount of dialogue with many elected members of the House and Senate, getting to talk about what is best for our membership. A big thank you to Monica Duran and Assistant Executive Director Dwayne Orrick for making this day happen as well. Please continue to review Director Ayers’ updates on important legislation, and as always, please continue to build relationships with your locally elected officials, as they are very important to the Association’s success.

As we approach April and a new chapter here at GACP, I am excited to see what our first spring conference holds. I know it will be new for all of us and together we can make it the best conference to date. I look forward to seeing everyone at the conference. As a closing note please help the Association by volunteering your time with conferences, committees, and other initiatives that GACP events.

Please stay safe, I will see you in April.