---
type: "Bill"
title: "Governor's Office of Public Safety Support; create"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 24 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to privileges, so as to provide for privileged communications between public safety officers and peer counselors; to amend Title 45 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to public officers and employees, so as to create the Governor's Office of Public Safety Support; to provide for a director; to provide for responsibilities of the office; to provide for office space, staff, supplies, and materials; to provide for definitions; to provide for related matters; to provide for a contingent effective date based on funding; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2017_18"
identifier: "HB 703"
citation: "Georgia HB 703 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Alan Powell", "Andrew Welch", "Bill Hitchens", "Gloria Frazier", "Jodi Lott"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 17
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2018-01-18"
last_action: "2018-05-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/662e6d1b-8214-423b-b938-a8cec4a63965"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "217fdc59e38b04345fea2bb071239ad974df7c9d1bd9eebcefbf27491e01ca42"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 703 (2017_18) — Governor's Office of Public Safety Support; create

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 24 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to privileges, so as to provide for privileged communications between public safety officers and peer counselors; to amend Title 45 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to public officers and employees, so as to create the Governor's Office of Public Safety Support; to provide for a director; to provide for responsibilities of the office; to provide for office space, staff, supplies, and materials; to provide for definitions; to provide for related matters; to provide for a contingent effective date based on funding; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.


## Votes

- PASSAGE — **172–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Alan Powell — primary (person)
- Andrew Welch — primary (person)
- Bill Hitchens — primary (person)
- Gloria Frazier — primary (person)
- Jodi Lott — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-18** House Hopper
- **2018-01-19** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2018-01-22** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2018-02-05** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-12** House Withdrawn, Recommitted `withdrawal, referral-committee`
- **2018-02-15** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-26** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2018-02-26** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2018-02-28** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-14** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-03-15** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2018-03-27** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2018-03-27** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2018-03-29** House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub
- **2018-04-05** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2018-05-07** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2018-05-07** Act 439 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/662e6d1b-8214-423b-b938-a8cec4a63965`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).