At the 97th Trooper School Graduation Ceremony, Colonel Mark McDonough awarded the Commissioner’s Commendation Award to TFC2 James “Jamie” Mitchell, III. He is an advocate for children.
In 2010, the Georgia State Patrol mandated a 100 percent certification of all troopers through the national child passenger safety certification program to address the need to educate caregivers on the proper installation of car seats while patrolling the roadways.
As a result of this initiative, each post was given an allotment of child safety seats, but the seats were limited to high back boosters and low back boosters. At many, if not all, of the child safety seat events troopers did not have the appropriate seats to provide to every child.
In November 2012, TFC Jamie Mitchell, III, became the child safety seat coordinator at Post 38 in Rome. He worked with the courts in Floyd and Chattooga counties to develop a community service exchange program. The program allows a violator the option to exchange community service hours for a new child safety seat. The probation office will accept the seats in exchange for a predetermined amount of community service hours. The number of hours that can be exchanged for the child safety seat are regulated by the local judicial system.
This program has been extremely successful in Floyd and Chattooga Counties since its implementation. Currently, it has collected approximately 750 child restraint seats that have been exchanged for community service hours. TFC Mitchell has been asked to share the project with other court systems within Troop A, as well as other cities and county governments who wish to implement it in their area, including Rome and Savannah.
In addition to his exemplary efforts in child occupant protection, TFC Mitchell has been an advocate for the Department of Family and Children Services in Chattooga County for a number of years by being a foster parent. TFC Mitchell has served as the president of the Chattooga County Foster Parent Association for five years. For the past 10 years, TFC Mitchell and his wife have had 50 foster children come through their home. They currently have seven foster kids in their home, five of which they have adopted. TFC Mitchell and his wife have been married for 19 years. They continuously go the extra mile to provide all they can for the less fortunate children who find themselves within a dysfunctional family.
