Lavonia Police Chief Plans Year of Community Outreach

Lavonia Police Chief Bruce Carlisle has made a New Year’s resolution to continue his efforts to build bridges between his department and the community.

Carlisle has announced his plan to offer one new community outreach program a month during 2022.

“This year I wanted to try something different. We’ve done several things in the past but I’m going to do it on a routine basis this year. So each month, I would like to present a different program for the public to come to,” he said.

He said the first one will be held on January 18 at the Lavonia Train Depot and will be a time of remembrance and education.

“That’s going to be a remembrance ceremony for the five-year anniversary of the officer-involved shooting here where now City Councilman Michael Schulman and Jeffery Martin were injured in the line of duty,” he said. “Basically, it’s going to be a case study of the shooting, and what happened during the event – the manhunt, the aftermath, and pretty much where they’re at right now. We’re going to have a presentation prepared for that, and we would like the public to come out and join us for that.”

Other programs over the coming months Chief Carlisle said will cover a range of topics and activities.

“The other events that I’ll be planning on a monthly basis include active shooter preparedness. Scams.  There are so many scams that are going around, I felt that would be a good thing to meet with the public to go over those and how to not become a victim of those. I’d like to do several of the citizens’ firearms academy classes. And I’d also like to do a town hall meeting where people can just come in and voice any concerns that they might have.”

Additionally, Carlisle said he will continue previous events such as Coffee With a Cop, Cookie with a Cop, and others throughout the year.

Again, the first community program will take place on January 18 at 6p at Lavonia Train Depot and will be a time to remember and review the incident five years ago when then-Police Captain Michael Schulman and officer Jeffrey Martin were shot after pulling over a South Carolina man for a routine traffic stop.

All of these programs are free.