​40 Hours CIT as 'Core Mandate' for All Police Academies

With regard to the recent social unrest, I would like to share two courses of action to ensure substantive systemic change thereby 'bridging the gap' between police and community, especially with regard to implicit bias, mental illness, crisis intervention, and police use of force.

First, I posit passage of a GA General Assembly statute mandating all POST/GPSTC Accredited Police Academies, matriculating POST Certified LEO's, provide AT LEAST 40 Hours of Crisis Intervention Training as a 'CORE MANDATE' within its curriculum would help ensure a paradigm shift in police culture. CIT saves lives. And time for this legislation is at hand!

Second, the Cobb County Crisis Intervention Team (C3IT) Multi-Disciplinary Multi-Jurisdiction Meeting in partnership with the Behavioral Health Group (part of Cobb2020 and Live Healthy Douglas Coalitions) might be used as a model for legislatively mandated replication throughout the state as well. Note, GA Attorney General Chris Carr ...'all but' ...endorsed the county's total community & crisis intervention engagement model (C3IT) for replication throughout all jurisdictions within the state this past November. Collective impact and use of inclusive innovative strategies is the clarion call for our communities.

Importantly, this legislation can be funded by Local Victim Assistance Program (LVAP) 5% Funds. These funds are distributed and controlled by the local jurisdictions. Each Law Enforcement Agency operating a 'police academy' can request funding through their County Board of Commissioners from a fund derived from a five percent penalty added to fines in all criminal and criminal ordinance cases specifically to fund direct victim assistance programs. In this way, even smaller jurisdictions can fund this additional training.This would avoid creating yet another 'unfunded mandate.

Specifically, an unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation that requires a state or local government to perform certain actions, with no money provided for fulfilling the requirements. Public individuals or organizations can also be required to fulfill public mandates. But, those affected by unfunded mandates often claim they are unfair and that government shouldn't create laws without providing the funding.

I believe the time for serious discussion & debate on these two legislation items is at hand. As such, pursuing these 2 efforts would be fair ... balanced ...and legal ...hence, ethical. And ...that is the standard we all should strive for.

Yours in Service,

Stephen M. George Jr., MPA

Candidate, GA General Assembly, House District 41