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On Saturday afternoon, Garner Newman Middle School hosted a community meeting and forum organized by the Troup NAACP in an attempt to prevent needless deaths when interacting with law enforcement. 

The event titled, Getting Home Safely: A Youth Empowerment and Law Enforcement Partnership, included a discussion with Chief Deputy District Attorney Lara Todd and Attorney Andrew Lampros, as well as LaGrange Police Chief Garrett Fiveash, Hogansville Police Chief Jeff Sheppard, West Point Police Chief Kevin Carter, School Superintendent Rachel Hazel and other leaders.

Lampros began by sharing video of a pair of police interactions. In one, a former Woodstock officer shot and killed Emmanuel Millard during what began as a traffic stop. The other showed a video of Julian Lewis, a 60-year-old unarmed black man, who was shot and killed by a state trooper after a traffic stop.

Lampros said in both cases, bad decisions were made by both police and those involved that contributed to them ending tragically. He said the families were able to win in court afterwards, including a record $4.8 million settlement for Lewis’s widow, but that won’t bring them back.

“Mr. Lewis’s family got some money. Mr. Millard’s family got some money. They would give every penny of it back to have their loved ones back home,” Lampros said.

“These guys over here want to go home safely, too,” Lampros said, acknowledging the officers who participated in the forum. “They will tell you they don’t want to hurt anybody either. They want to go home to their families unscathed.”

“They don’t want to be facing what the young officer who shot Mr. Millard is facing. He is a convicted felon because Cobb County prosecuted him for involuntary manslaughter, so his life is forever changed, too,” Lampros said.

Lampros suggested that even when you believe police are violating your rights, don’t do anything that could be perceived as violence because that could get you killed even if you are in the right.

“You’ve heard of being dead wrong. Don’t be dead right,” Lampros said. “There isn’t anything that happens out there on the side of the road with your rights that I can’t fix in a courtroom … but I can’t bring anyone back to life.”

Stay calm and collected when pulled over by police and be respectful, he said.

“Don’t argue your case on the side of the road. Let me do it in the courtroom,” Lampros said.

“Don’t resist. Don’t lie and keep your hands visible,” Lampros said. “These guys don’t know who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’re capable of doing. They don’t know anything about you. Their desire is the same as yours. They want to go home,” Lampros said.

Lampros and District Attorney Todd explained the differences between police encounters and when police are allowed to detain and identify people. 

Most police encounters are Tier 1, where police are allowed to ask for identification, but you don’t have to give it to them.

“The truth of the matter is, they don’t. But the purpose of our meeting here today is to talk about what we can do to get home safely,” Lampros said. “While, yes, you’re not obligated, by law, to provide that identification, if they’re violating your rights, but it’s not going to hurt you to do so.”

Todd explained that all traffic stops are Tier 2 or higher, where police are allowed to detain drivers and arrest them if they don’t provide identification.

To be Tier 2, police have to have “reasonable articulable suspicion” that a law has been broken. Traffic offenses are violations of the law, so police can detain and identify you. If you refuse to identify at this point, they can take you to jail, Todd said.

Tier 3 encounters are where police have probable cause to arrest people and take them to jail. Refusing to provide identification during a Tier 2 encounter will immediately raise it to Tier 3.

“My point is this, if you provide the identification, ain’t nobody getting hurt from doing that,” Lampros said. “The theme here is, don’t argue with them on the side of the road, because you’re more likely than not going to lose that argument.”

Lampros said you don’t have to answer questions beyond telling police who you are. You can use your Fifth Amendment rights, but those don’t always include not providing your identity.

Regardless of which tier your police encounter is, it’s best to provide your identification and let lawyers argue your case afterwards if your rights have truly been violated, Lampros explained.