Georgia State Sen. Randy Robertson (R-Cataula) has filed legislation that would provide an instructional course and educate drivers on how best to interact with law enforcement officers, especially during traffic stops.
According to the language of the bill, members of the Georgia Department of Public Safety would offer the lesson.
“Such instructional course shall be authorized for use as part of other driver education programs provided for by law or by educational institutions,” according to Robertson’s proposal.
According to Robertson’s bill, the course would instruct drivers about the following:
• The best practices of what a driver should do during a traffic stop initiated by a law enforcement officer
• Recommendations for interacting with law enforcement officers during traffic stops
• The consequences associated with continuous citations and habitual violations
• Understanding officer discretion and legal precedents that provide the grounds for a law enforcement officer’s actions, which may include requesting identification, use of force, detainment, pursuits, and legal warnings
Robertson told members of a Senate Public Safety Committee meeting Tuesday that he filed the bill because of “all of the problems that have occurred throughout our country and state involving law enforcement officers and citizens driving motor vehicles.”
Robertson also said he has targeted his legislation toward new and younger drivers.
“We will tell those individuals how to act and when to stop,” Robertson said.
“We will bring all of those things together and save lives.”
State Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell), who chairs the committee, said that when he was younger his father taught him the proper ways to act if and when law enforcement officers pull him over in traffic. But Albers said not everyone learned the same rules as he did growing up.
Albers is one of the bill’s four other co-sponsors, according to the Georgia General Assembly’s website.
Committee members voted unanimously to pass the bill for further consideration.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Student Driver” by Ildar Sagdejev. CC BY-SA 1.0.
