For L.E.A.D. Officer of the Year Bryant Mosley consistency is important

Published 9:45 am Saturday, May 3, 2025

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LaGrange Police Officer Bryant Mosley was recently named L.E.A.D. (Law Enforcement Against Drugs & Violence) Georgia Instructor of the Year for 2025. It’s the second time Molsey has earned the recognition. He was also L.E.A.D.’s Georgia Instructor of the Year in 2023.

L.E.A.D. is a nationwide nonprofit that works with communities to help students understand the dangers of drugs and violence. The program is similar to the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) many of the parents of the kids Mosley works with today grew up with.

Officer Mosley teaches the L.E.A.D. program to students in the fifth grade at Ethel W. Kight, Hollis Hand and Berta Weathersbee Elementary Schools and students in the ninth and tenth grades at Lafayette Christian School and LaGrange High School.

“It’s a drug prevention program that’s evidence-based. It focuses on helping kids to understand how to set goals, how to make decisions, understand their emotions and effectively communicate,” Mosley said.

The program gives officers time to get to know students and share the dangers of drugs.

“In the 10-week program, we go through everything step by step with them. That allows me an opportunity to get to know them, when they can tell me about their own personal experiences and I can relate to them on just a human level, as a man, as a father, as a son,” Mosley said.

Mosley said building a rapport with students comes from consistency.

“It comes from consistency, being authentic with who I am,” Mosley said. “I’m a father and a man first, and then they get to know me. Of course, they’ll see the badge. They’ll see the LaGrange Police Department issued equipment and all that stuff. But once you have conversations, and they realize that I genuinely care, that’s when it makes an impact, and being consistent, being present with them, just being somebody that shows up for them.”

Mosley said they plan to implement the L.E.A.D. program with all of the department’s School Resource Officers (SROs) once they are trained.

That way it can be more impactful throughout the school system, especially in elementary schools, he said.

Being an SRO, you have to have a different mindset when dealing with kids instead of adults, Mosley said.

“You need to understand where they’re coming from. There is a level of empathy you have to have for this new generation. You have to be able to adapt. Effective communication is key, and mutual respect,” Mosley said.

There’s a time and place for rules and discipline, he said.

“When you meet them on their level and understanding, I think you make bigger strides and meaningful change that way,” Mosley said.

When he’s not at work, Mosley loves spending time with his wife, Christina, and kids, who are eight and four years old.

“It’s baseball season, so we’ve been spending a lot of time with that,” he said.

Mosley enjoys working out and the mental health aspect it provides. He is also a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Alpha Xi Chapter in LaGrange.

Christina also works with kids. She is a teacher in Clayton County who helps with exceptional needs students at two elementary schools.

“She has a heart for serving as well, and she supports me 100 percent,” Mosley said.