--- title: House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, April 1, 2026 collection: meetings id: 2026-04-01/house-public-safety-and-homeland-security cite_as: House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, April 1, 2026, video https://vimeo.com/1178567736 (machine transcript by Georgia Commons) canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-04-01/house-public-safety-and-homeland-security md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-04-01/house-public-safety-and-homeland-security.md text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-04-01/house-public-safety-and-homeland-security/text source_url: https://vimeo.com/1178567736 date: 2026-04-01 status: machine transcript corpus_version: meetings-2026-10-23-8c15ead0f18d license: Machine transcript and summaries by Georgia Commons from the General Assembly's public video; the video stays on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel; see about.md publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice. up: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-04-01.md previous: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-03-31/house-rules-3.md next: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-04-01/house-transportation.md index: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/index.md chamber: House body: House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee body_url: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/house-public-safety-and-homeland-security.md meeting_kind: committee session: 2025-2026 Regular Session start_time: 2026-04-01T11:00:00-04:00 location: 506 CLOB duration_seconds: 1249.0 video_id: 1178567736 video_title: 4.1.26 Public Safety and Homeland Security agenda_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/agendas/house/Public Safety%2FPublic Safety & Homeland Security Committee Meeting Notice 4-1-26.pdf bills_discussed: - SB 454 summaries_model: gpt-6.1-sol transcript_turns: 16 --- # House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, April 1, 2026 House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee; April 1, 2026; 2025-2026 Regular Session. Video, on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/1178567736. Agenda: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/agendas/house/Public Safety%2FPublic Safety & Homeland Security Committee Meeting Notice 4-1-26.pdf. > This is a machine transcript of the General Assembly's video, made by a speech-recognition model. It is not an official record and can mishear words, names, and numbers. Speakers are not identified. The video is the record: every timestamp links to the moment it plays. ## Summary written by Georgia Commons Written by gpt-6.1-sol from the transcript below. It is not part of the record. Quote the transcript or the video, not the summary. The committee took up [SB 454](https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb454) and approved it as amended by a voice vote, with no opposition heard. The chair explained that the changes would make exterior lockboxes at schools optional rather than required and remove an exception that would no longer be needed. No substantive questions or further debate followed. ## Bills discussed (1) Each account was written by gpt-6.1-sol from the stretch of the transcript it names. The bill's number is said in that stretch, unless it was the only bill on a committee's agenda. ### SB 454. Regulation of Fire and Other Hazards; use of temporary door locking devices in public buildings during certain emergency situations; authorize [SB 454](https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb454) (2025-2026 Regular Session). From [0:18:31](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1111s), turns 9 to 14. The chair said [SB 454](https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb454) combined two legislators’ bills and described changes to its school lockbox provision. The chair explained that replacing a requirement with permission would allow, rather than require, elementary and secondary schools to install at least one exterior lockbox. The chair also said the changes removed an exception for schools whose governing bodies had implemented a documented, formal process, because that exception was unnecessary once installation became optional. A committee member moved to adopt the bill as amended, and another member seconded the motion. No substantive questions or further discussion followed. The motion passed by voice vote, with no opposition heard. ## Transcript (16 turns) [0:17:07](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1027s) All right, everybody. We are, uh, we're going to go ahead and get started here in just a moment. Um- [0:17:14](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1034s) Please view it on the [0:17:16](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1036s) First of all, I'd like to thank all of y'all for being here, um, on a off day. And, uh, I'd like to start off by saying that, um, now that we're all here, we're not actually gonna have a meeting. So, thank y'all for coming. [0:17:30](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1050s) That should be an April Fool's Day. [0:17:32](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1052s) Thank you. Thank you for playing along, Mr. Skandalis. [0:17:38](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1058s) My, uh, my wife and kids had one earlier this morning. They called me very first thing with one that, that I didn't think was funny at all, but- [0:17:47](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1067s) They said you were good-looking? [0:17:50](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1070s) Yeah, worse than that. They, yeah, they, uh, they played me pretty good, so I figured I had to do it back to somebody. Uh, Chairman Werkheiser is going to open us up in a word of prayer, and you are on, sir. [0:18:01](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1081s) You mean make a motion and pray, or just pray? Our Father, we thank you for this opportunity. We thank you for giving us breath, and we thank you for all the things that you give us that we don't even recognize, and thank you for the opportunity to serve this state, and we just pray that we would do things in the best interest of the citizens of this state. And we just ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. [0:18:26](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1106s) Thank you very much. All right. We are, uh, gonna be dealing with Senate Bill 454. Um, and Chairman Williams is here, and, uh, Representative Ridley is here, and they have the, the, essentially, t- their two bills were combined into this. What we're gonna be changing, if you'll look on page three- Um, in section two, what we've done is we've taken out some, um, language and changed on line 61, if you see where it says, um, "Elementary and secondary school in the state may provide for the installation at each school one l- one of at least, of at least one exterior lockbox." Um, that used to say shall. [0:19:16](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1156s) The exemption language that was taken out, uh, in the old bill was from line 60 to 64, and it basically talked about unless a local board of education or other governing body had implemented a documented and a formal process, um, then they would have re- been required to do this. But now, since we're making it a may, it don't make sense to have that, uh, uh, exception language that was in there before. So that's been changed. That's all the changes in the bill. Um, and so do we have questions? Do you have a question? [0:19:46](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1186s) No, I'd just like to make a motion that we, uh, adopt as amended. Second. [0:19:53](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1193s) Okay. I have a motion and a second. Anybody got any questions, any discussion about any of this? Any comments from the authors? I think they're all aware and all good with the, the changes here, so all right. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor say aye. [0:20:09](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1209s) Aye. [0:20:09](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1209s) Any opposed, same sign. All right, thank y'all very much. And I would like to say this, this will for sure be the last meeting we have of this committee, God willing, uh, this session. So, uh, I wanna thank Michael, and I wanna thank Megan, and I wanna thank Ann for, uh, helping us. They've done a great job. [0:20:31](https://vimeo.com/1178567736#t=1231s) All right. Thank y'all all very much. I appreciate your, uh, your help during the session, and, uh, we'll see you next year. Thanks.