What Changed

At its June 24, 2026 meeting, the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council voted on several items that affect who runs police academies and how. Georgia POST published the update on June 30. The biggest item: a proposed rule change that, according to POST's own meeting summary, would remove the requirement that academy directors hold a four-year degree.

Status: That change was a proposed rule amendment as of June 24 and was sent to a public hearing set for July 22, 2026. This article covers the June action. Check Georgia POST for the outcome of the hearing.

What It Says

  • Academy director qualifications. The council advanced an amendment to POST Rule 464-5-.09 that would combine it with parts of Rule 464-5-.19 and then repeal Rule .19. That is the change that drops the four-year-degree requirement for academy directors.
  • Uniform academy rules. The council advanced an amendment to Rule 464-5-3.2 that adds the Uniform Law Enforcement Academy Rules (ULEAR) to the rule. It also voted to accept newly revised ULEAR regulations "for all academies and other training environments."
  • Staffing relief. The Reinhardt College academy received a temporary waiver of permanent staffing requirements through January 1, 2027.
  • Annual topic. Autism Response will stay the mandatory Community Oriented Policing requirement for 2027.

What's not public in the summary: why the degree change was proposed, and what the revised ULEAR regulations actually contain. We won't guess at either. What the summary does show is a state regulator adjusting both the credentials for academy leadership and the staffing rules at the same meeting.

Why It Matters Operationally

Academy leadership decides what recruits practice, how often, and under what conditions. That includes whether casualty care is a stand-alone lecture block or built into firearms, defensive tactics, and scenario days.

The case for integrated, repeated medical training is strong. The Joint Trauma System's Vascular Injury CPG credits "widespread training and use of tourniquets on the modern battlefield" with allowing casualties "that would have died from extremity hemorrhage in the field to now reach medical care." The key word there is training. Owning the equipment was not enough.

For police, C-TECC's Tactical Emergency Casualty Care guidelines give academies a civilian framework. The TCCC Guidelines (01 May 2026) begin hemorrhage control with self-aid. Recruits will only learn those skills to that level if the academy director protects the time and makes the scenarios realistic.

ODM's Position

Position: Judge academy leadership by what the academy produces, not only by the director's diploma. A degree requirement can be removed without lowering standards. It can also lower them, if nothing replaces it.

Evidence: Readiness comes from repeated practice under realistic conditions. The JTS guidance above credits tourniquet training and use, not credentials, with getting more wounded to care alive. And Georgia's own June actions show that at least one academy needed a waiver from its staffing requirements.

Strongest counterpoint: A four-year degree requirement helps make academy leadership more professional. Directors design curricula, manage instructors, handle accreditation, and defend budgets, and formal education supports that work. Removing the requirement could let some academies promote without enough preparation. That concern is legitimate.

What good looks like: Swap the credential for measurable competence and results:

  • Director qualifications that require instructor certification, operational experience, and training in curriculum design and adult learning
  • Published academy measures, such as scenario pass rates and skills retention checked after the academy, not just graduation counts
  • Casualty care built into force, firearms, and building-search scenarios, including realistic residential layouts, not taught only as a stand-alone block
  • Recurring state funding for academy staffing so waivers don't become a lasting fix

What Your Agency Should Do Now

  • If you run or feed a Georgia academy, read the revised ULEAR and comment on any director-qualification change through POST's public process.
  • Ask your academy how many hours of hands-on casualty care recruits get, and how much of it happens under stress.
  • Test recruits on tourniquet and wound-packing skills during field training, not only at graduation.
  • Track instructor vacancies and waivers, and report them to leadership as a readiness risk.
  • Pair new academy leaders with experienced tactical medicine instructors while the rules are in flux.

Bottom Line

Georgia is adjusting who can lead its academies and how they're staffed. Whether that turns out well depends on what replaces the degree requirement and whether anyone measures the result. Recruits should leave an academy able to stop a bleed under pressure, whatever their director studied.

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