Lavonia Police Chief Receives Prestigous Award

Lavonia Police Chief Bruce Carlisle was recently awarded the 2022 Judge Arthur M. Kaplan First Responder Leadership Award. 

The award was presented by Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite Valley Of Atlanta last week at the Atlanta Masonic Center in downtown Atlanta. 

Carlisle said the award was great honor but added the award represents all Lavonia law enforcement. 

“I’m very humbled and honored to receive this award.  Anytime that I step outside the city of Lavonia and receive any type of recognition or represent the city, I keep that in mind that I am representing the city of Lavonia.  It’s been such a honor to be here in the city, and we have such great people, and I’m just grateful that I’ve been given the opportunity to put Lavonia on the map a little bit outside of our area and statewide.  Like I say, this is not just something for me.    It’s for the whole city.  It represents who we are and how far that we have come in the field of public safety here in the city.  I’m just honored and humbled to be small part of it.

Carlisle thanked the Lavonia City Council and Mayor Courtney Umbehant for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Lavonia. 

Judge Arthur M. Kaplan First Responder Leadership Award is named in honor of Judge Kaplan who served Atlanta both as a judge and a first responder. 

“I have a lot of friends that worked for the Atlanta Police Department that actually knew the judge and worked with him and told me what a great asset he was to the first responders in the Atlanta area and how many people that he helped along the way during his lifetime.  So this award being named after the judge was quite an honor to him and for his family.”   

Kaplan passed away in 2010 at the age of 84.

According to his obituary in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Kaplan was honored by the Secret Service, trained thousands of law enforcement officers in emergency rescue and on a few occasions personally treated wounded officers even as shots were being fired.

Kaplan taught his lifesaving techniques to officers and Secret Service and FBI agents as well as some probation violators who would appear before him in court.

During his career Kaplan appeared on the television shows To Tell the Truth and he was featured on This Is Your Life. 

Newsweek Magazine included the judge on its list 100 “unsung heroes” of America in 1986.