Sunday, November 2, 2025–3:10 p.m.
-Staff reports-
The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) honored 33 state and local law enforcement agencies for their work in saving lives on our roads at the 26th annual Governor’s Challenge Awards on Friday at the Macon Centreplex.
GOHS presented Agency of the Year awards in nine different categories based on the number of employees, the top GOHS Traffic Enforcement Networks, GOHS Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (H.E.A.T.) teams, Network Coordinator, and Assistant Coordinator of the Year.
The Rome Police Department was 1st and the Floyd County Police Department was 2nd in Category Five, which includes departments with 76 to 100 officers.
The Calhoun Police Department was 1st in Category 3, which is 26-45 officers.
There were also awards in ten safety categories.
Rome PD was recognized as the top agency for Child Passenger Safety, while Calhoun PD was recognized for speed enforcement.
The Governor’s Challenge program honors law enforcement agencies for their work to prevent crashes, injuries and deaths in their communities, college campuses and military installations. Designed to award outstanding achievements in highway safety enforcement and education, the awards recognize agencies for the approach and effectiveness of their overall highway safety programs.
Agencies are evaluated not just for enforcement initiatives, but for unique problem-solving in their communities, using public information activities, and creating departmental policies that support their traffic enforcement campaign efforts. Highway safety experts from Tennessee and Florida judged the 65 applications submitted to GOHS to select the 2025 Governor’s Challenge winners.
“Crash data shows enforcement of traffic laws is one of the most effective ways to save lives on our roads and today we wanted to say thanks to the men and women in Georgia law enforcement for the lives they save every day, Allen Poole, Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said. “State and local law enforcement officers also work every day to prevent crashes through educational programs and initiatives with the goal to reduce the number of crashes on our roads.”
“These men and women will never know how many lives they save at the end of the day, but we know they are making a difference in reducing the number of crashes on our roads each year,” Roger Hayes, GOHS Law Enforcement Services Director said. “We ask everyone to help our law enforcement officers save lives on our roads by obeying all traffic safety laws and starting every trip with wearing a seat belt and making sure all children under eight are properly restrained in a child safety seat that meets the manufacturer’s guidelines for that child.”
The full list of this year’s Governor’s Challenge winners is as follows: