Georgia Public Safety Training Center

The Georgia Public Safety Training Center or "GPSTC" is the state training center for multiple public safety disciplines around the state of Georgia. It is managed by the Georgia Board of Public Safety and has several managing directors. The current managing director is Christopher Wigginton. The Georgia Public Safety Training Center is famous for the organization's participation in the Poulan Police Scandal through apparent approval of GPSTC leadership.

Background

The facility was opened in 1980 to serve public safety agencies throughout the state of Georgia. GPSTC trains multiple disciplines among public safety professions. The facility has multiple firing ranges, fire houses, swimming pools, gyms, classrooms, and driving tracks to help assist in training environments.

Controversy

The Georgia Public Safety Training Center participated in the Poulan Police Scandal by allowing it's numerous instructors to prevent Poulan Police Officers from attending training classes at the public behest of Larry Whisenant. Whisenant has admitted to this activity in writing during a GA POST Investigation, and emails exist from GPSTC instructors to officers who were whistleblowing the scandal prove Whisenant's orders to GPSTC Instructors (similar to his involvement with GA POST to fabricate statements and commit racketeering offenses with GA POST Investigators). These emails were released as part of a data dump by a podcaster in late 2024 who interviewed both officers who reported the Poulan Police Scandal and lost their employment and had training milestones denied to them as retaliation by Larry Whisenant using resources available to him at GPSTC and GA POST.

In 2025, GPSTC Police Academy Division Director, Samuel "Ray" Ham, was arrested on April 13, 2025, while still actively employed at GPSTC. He was terminated from his position after he was arrested, and without comment from GPSTC. He plead guilty to four counts of child molestation in August of 2025, three counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of grooming a minor for a sexual offense in a Walton County Georgia courthouse. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. GA POST claimed that the POST Council was notified of the arrest, but no other comment was made, and there was no public indication if GA POST conducted an investigation to determine the state of Ham's certification as a police officer. As far as publicly available information allows, Samuel Ham is still a certified peace officer in the State of Georgia.

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