Georgia's LESS Crime Act: A New Way for Citizens to Directly Fund Local Law Enforcement

Georgia recently rolled out a powerful new tool to support law enforcement: the LESS Crime Act, short for Law Enforcement Strategic Support Act. It allows residents to directly send part of their state income tax to their local law enforcement foundations—with no out-of-pocket cost to the taxpayer.

This law has huge potential to improve officer pay, training, and equipment, especially in departments with tight budgets or low funding from local governments.

Here’s what this means for officers on the ground.

How It Works

The LESS Crime Act gives Georgia taxpayers a dollar-for-dollar state income tax credit when they donate to an approved law enforcement foundation. That means the money they’d normally pay in taxes can instead go directly to support your department—if your agency is part of an approved nonprofit foundation.

It’s not a tax deduction. It’s a full tax credit, which means the money gets redirected, not just written off.

Who Can Give and How Much?

This law is open to a wide range of taxpayers:

Individuals: Can redirect up to $5,000
Married couples filing jointly: Up to $10,000
LLC members, S Corp shareholders, and partners: Up to $10,000
Corporations: Up to 75% of their total state income tax liability

Funds must be pre-approved through the Georgia Department of Revenue and must go to an officially recognized law enforcement foundation

How Departments Can Use the Money

Approved law enforcement foundations can use these funds to:

Supplement officer salaries
Upgrade or replace equipment
Provide advanced training and certification opportunities
Support mental health and behavioral crisis response teams

This can mean better gear, more meaningful incentives to retain officers, and more specialized training that you’d normally never get without a grant.

This isn’t just a tax break. It’s a policy shift—one that puts more power in the hands of the public and gives departments a new way to get much-needed resources.

Whether you’re a patrol officer, FTO, or supervisor, it’s worth knowing what’s happening with these funds in your city or county. And if you’re in a state that doesn’t have this yet, you may want to start asking your state reps why not.

This is one of the few funding opportunities that doesn’t come with federal red tape or politics. It’s clean, local, and focused directly on supporting the men and women wearing the badge.