Several local police officers were among those who joined members of Keep Gilmer Beautiful (KGB) for a recent training workshop that explored how litter enforcement and prevention can help make communities safer.
Keep Gilmer Beautiful and Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful received a grant from the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation to present the workshop held Thursday, Feb. 10, at the Carters Lake Visitors Center. It was led by Scott Carroll, a game warden who covers seven counties in southwest Georgia.
Carroll, also a a certified Georgia POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) instructor, said he’s traveled the state giving classes on litter enforcement and other law topics since 2006.
The aim of the class is twofold — to increase safety by encouraging enforcement of Georgia’s Comprehensive Litter Prevention and Abatement Act (which includes such littering penalties as fines and community service) and provide police officers with tools and information needed to successfully enforce littering laws.
“The first portion of the class goes over the law that Georgia has on the books,” Carroll said. “Most officers in the state get the same level of litter enforcement training. Depending on who they took it from, they may not have gotten all the tools that are available to them or had the law dissected the way that I go through it and break it down.”
According to Ron Cheslock, KGB chairman, attendees were shown how aggressive litter enforcement can be used to deter additional crimes, as well as how to work with courts and others to successfully reduce littering and illegal dumping.
The course covers some of the common whys, hows, whats and wheres of littering, Carroll noted.
“We apply the law to some different case scenarios and say, ‘I would use this law in this situation, and this law in that situation.’ We (also) go into some different psychological theories of why people litter, where they like to litter and what places in the community make it easy for them to litter,” he added. “(Some) places are more prone to litter the way they are built or created or (due to) things that are in the area that give people more seclusion. We go through a lot of those things to get them thinking about where some places like that may be (in their communities).”
The workshop was attended by personnel from the Gilmer Sheriff’s Office and Ellijay Police, as well as officers from Whitfield County, Cheslock noted. All certified police officers who attended earned three hours of POST credit.
Gilmer County Commission Chairman Charlie Paris and code enforcement director Art Wlochowski also attended the workshop, noted Cheslock.
Gilmer Sheriff Stacy Nicholson said he attended because, besides people driving drunk on the highways, litter is his biggest pet peeve.
Cheslock said this was the first litter reduction and enforcement workshop to be presented by Keep Gilmer Beautiful, and he hopes there will be more to come if funding allows.
“This is something that we, as an organization, have struggled with for many years. I think having the opportunity to have a professional who’s very knowledgable and understands the law come and speak to our law enforcement is the first step,” Cheslock said.
“What we (KGB) can do is continue the Adopt-A-Road program and do more education in the community. One of our goals for 2022 is to get a more active program in the schools. That’s really where it starts, educating younger children,” he added.
The purpose of KGB’s Adopt-A-Road program is to clean up litter along the county’s roadways. The program has fully opened back up following some restrictions during the pandemic, and it’s always in need of more volunteers, Cheslock confirmed.
“We’re actively seeking any groups or neighborhoods who are interested in adopting a road,” he said.