If you are an essential worker traveling to and from work or you are taking or picking up your child from day care and a police officer pulls you over and asks for a letter proving you are authorized to travel, the police officer is in the wrong, not you.
Georgia’s shelter-in-place order does not require a letter or any sort of written statement authorizing travel on Georgia’s roads and Interstates.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says he has heard reports of officers stopping Georgians and demanding letters that are not required by his executive order.
The statement from the governor is below.
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“On Thursday, April 2, 2020, the Executive Order to Ensure a Safe & Healthy Georgia – commonly called the shelter-in-place order – was issued. The order became effective beginning Friday, April 3 at 6:00 PM and is set to expire Monday, April 13 at 11:59 PM. This order allows all licensed childcare facilities to remain open subject to certain restrictions, including social distancing and sanitation.
“We have received recent reports of law enforcement stopping people to ask for a letter authorizing their travel. The Executive Order to Ensure a Safe & Healthy Georgia does not require any worker to carry an authorization letter on Georgia’s roads. As a result, the order allows for any necessary travel by workers and families to and from a childcare facility during this public health emergency.
“Parents with children in private childcare represent Georgia’s hardworking families with jobs that are critical to supporting themselves and the larger community. Essential workers such as nurses, doctors, first responders, and state and municipal employees rely on childcare to allow them to perform the critical functions so desperately needed in a public health emergency. From the fireman to the stocker at the grocery store, without access to quality, licensed childcare, many of these workers would be forced to stay home, putting further stress on the system responding to this pandemic.”