Updated Georgia Basic Peace Officer Mandate
bryanmcreeOn June 11, 2024 The Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (GA POST) voted to increase the minimum training requirements to become a certified peace officer in Georgia. This will increase the previous 408 hours of training to 810 hours (maximum). The new hours will provide for other training previously not included in the 408 hour training. The new topics include Active Shooter Response, Crisis Intervention, Tactical Casualty Control, Officer Resiliency, Extremist Groups, Election Security, Advanced DUI Enforcement, and others. Other topics such as firearms, emergency vehicle operations, defensive tactics and physical training have been expanded. In many cases new Recruits would complete the 408 basic mandate training then have to seek additional training such as expandable baton, RADAR / LIDAR, and even taster training as they were not included in "basic". This new requirement will start January 1, 2025.
From a Command perspective this new rule is good and bad. Everyone can agree Georgia has fallen behind in the number of hours of training in the Police Academy's and Departments had to rely on other in-service classes to get their Officers the training they needed after becoming certified. There is not a single Department that won't benefit from having an Officer with more training. However Departments will now have to wait almost twice as long to fill positions. This is a concern with smaller Agencies and is only compounded by the lack of interest in law enforcement this nation is facing.
Agencies will have to refactor the cost of mandate students and expand other line items such as overtime to accommodate the lack of personnel. On the other hand, Officers can now report to FTO training already certified in a number of extra topics ready to go to work. These extra topics would have required the Officer to seek the training somewhere else and could take months to find a class being offered. In many cases Officers sought out these extra classes on their own time and at their own expense.
Below outlines some of the changes in the time spent on each topic.
| Topic | Previous Hours | New Hours |
| Firearms | 32 | 120 |
| Defensive Tactics | 32 | 64 |
| Judgmental Use of Deadly Force | 16 | 40 |
| Driving (EVOC) | 24 | 56 |
| Crisis Intervention | 4 | 40 |
| Physical Training | 0 | 64 |
| Officer Survival | 0 | 40 |
| Speed Detection (RADAR and LIDAR) | 0 | 16 |
| 1st Amendment Audits | 0 | 2 |
Expansions on current topics include.
- Firearms
- Will now include advanced shooting skills, and patrol rifle.
- Taser - NEW TOPIC
- ALERT (Active Shooter) - NEW TOPIC
- Impaired Driving (SFST) - NEW TOPIC
- TECC (Tactical Emergency Casualty Care)
- CPR and Narcan
- Speed Detection - NEW TOPIC
- RADAR and LIDAR
Other Considerations Include
- Will more mandate classes be offered? If so where will the Instructors come from? Will there be more academies opened?
- How will this offset other advanced training such as Intermediate and Advanced Certification classes?
The GA POST Press Release can be viewed here.
Some of this specialized training should have been in mandate for many years and it's pleasant to see it added. An officer should hit but FTO with a certain amount of knowledge, as Pooh can hit the fan the first day.
If the goal is to make better officers, it will only partially help. There are too many departmental issues that no one ever wants to address. There are far too many elected officials that strongly discourage law enforcement in fear of election day. There are far too many who are hired based on who they are instead of their character and abilities. Then there are far too many from that pool that are negligently retained for the same reason, who they are. If, no, when they are finally on the carpet, they're allowed to resign in lieu of termination and become someone else'problem. And it takes far too long for it to teach that point. This, simply put is the "good ol' boy" system. It's nationwide, but strong in Georgia.
Again, I'm all in for training, but policing isn't rocket science. It's common sense, character, morals, empathy, and EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP!
I wish they would have addressed the motorcycle course. Made it a mandatory 80 hours like the bicycle course is. I could never understand that. Has anyone been killed on a bike?
Unionization would take care of political meddling with a few well placed lawsuits.
Leadership is important enough to add that people are promoted beyond their abilities.