VALDOSTA, GA (WTXL) - Several laws go into effect on Monday in Georgia, including one effecting how law enforcement respond in the courtroom.
Officers facing grand jurors regarding deadly force will now have to answer questions if they make statements to grand juries.
Before the new law passed, officers in the Peach State were able to give statements without having to answer questioning.
In addition, they are no longer allowed to stay for the entire proceedings of a grand jury.
Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress says the new law is a fair compromise: "If an officer out in the middle of the night, he ends up shooting somebody and its dark out and the person pulls out what he thought was a gun, turns out to be a pipe. The supreme court says you got to judge him based on those exact conditions at that time. How are they going to know that if the officer doesn't testify? So I do think its a fair law."
Chief Childress says not allowing any officer to stay for the entire proceeding treats them like any other citizen in the state.
