President’s Message

Greetings to all the membership,

I would like to say that I am excited and humbled to become GACP’s 62^nd President. It has been a busy first two months. I must first mention that our profession lost two heroes in the line of duty within one week. Paulding County Deputy Brandon Cunningham and Carroll County Deputy Taylor Bristow were gunned down within days of each other. As President of our Association, I knew that one of my duties would be to attend the funerals of fallen officers around this state but prayed that I would not have to. These two law enforcement officers represented some of the absolute best the State of Georgia has to offer and will be truly missed. I, along with other Executive Board Members and Executive Director Ayers, attended these funerals and we at the Association continue to pray for healing within these two agencies and for law enforcement across this state. 

We just closed another great record-breaking Summer Training Conference. While on the Executive Board, I have been amazed at how much work and the costs that go into putting these training conferences together. The dedicated staff at GACP work tirelessly to provide a quality training product and exceptional networking experiences at these conferences. This year, we were able to secure the Savannah Riverboat as another after hours event to help with networking and a little time to unwind after a long day of training. GACP secured sponsors for the event, thus costing our association zero dollars. Our goal at these conferences is to provide top notch training along with networking events in the evening and again we hit the mark. A huge THANK YOU to Executive Director Ayers and his team for an outstanding job with this year’s conference. As everyone knows, in 2025 we will transition to a spring and fall schedule and I know they will be just as exciting.

GACP continues to move forward on several projects. First, we have plans on purchasing real estate to move our headquarters to a larger location. This is long overdue; we continue to be short on space to hold classes and to park vehicles. This is not an endeavor we take lightly. We as the Executive Board and the Association have been working on this project for several years. Our plan is to have a sufficient building to house our operations, to expand training and to get us through the next 25 to 30 years. We also continue to be involved in the expansion of the basic mandate training program for the State of Georgia. This process is nearing completion and hopefully go into effect in 2025. Our basic mandate academy training hours are currently 49^th in the United States, just behind the State of Mississippi. We need to change this. Our new Georgia POST-approved hours will place us in the upper tier of training in the United States and will provide a better prepared officer for all of us. Lastly, we will continue to work with our lobbyists to move forward legislation that assists our profession and combat negative legislation that is meant to hinder the great work we do every day. I know that Executive Director Ayers works tirelessly with our legislative lobbyists to stay ahead of legislation that is being developed or dropped before and during the session at the capitol, this is not easy work. To that point our Association membership can help our association by being engaged with their local State Representatives and Senators, in helping us move our profession forward. As always, I would like to THANK our Legislative Committee leadership, Public Safety Director John Robison, Chief Frank Trammer, Chief Mike Turner, and Chief Chuck Snyder, for their hard work in this endeavor as well. They put in a great deal of time helping us with progressive legislation.

In closing, I am looking forward to a great year at the Association. I am truly grateful for this experience and to work alongside the best in the business. Our entire Association is committed to making Georgia law enforcement better for the future.

Stay Safe