Inside ‘Cop City': What Atlanta's Controversial Training Center Looks Like
The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center — the southern DeKalb County facility colloquially known as 'Cop City' — officially opened its doors Tuesday after four contentious years of development.
The 85-acre campus will serve as the training grounds for the city's police and firefighters, yet it has received strong pushback due to its environmental impact, $67 million taxpayer price tag, and prospect of police militarization being used against Black citizens.
'We need this training center so that we can better service you,' Roderick Smith, chief of Atlanta Fire and Rescue, said during a December media tour of Cop City. 'No matter what stories you've heard about what's going on or what's transpiring here, we've been very transparent about what this facility means to each department and what services we intend to provide.'
Cop City was first announced in April 2021 by then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as a means of increasing morale and improving retention among Atlanta police officers following a wave of protests during summer 2020.
Activists began organizing to oppose the facility almost immediately, but Stop Cop City — a movement of racial and environmental justice activists — received national and international attention after Georgia Bureau of Investigation SWAT shot and killed 26-year-old Manuel 'Tortuguita' Paez Terán there on the morning of Jan. 18, 2023. The unit was raiding South River Forest to clear out activists known as 'forest defenders' who were camping in the woods adjacent to where the facility is now located.
The shooting spurred protests in downtown Atlanta that led Gov. Brian Kemp to declare a state of emergency. Local elected officials who sought to delegitimize the movement labeled people affiliated with Stop Cop City as 'domestic terrorists' and 'outside agitators.'
Despite Stop Cop City gaining momentum, particularly on local college campuses, the political will to move forward with the facility never faltered.
In June 2023, Stop Cop City launched the Cop City Vote campaign with the support of organizations like Working Families Power, Community Movement Builders, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
The campaign collected more than 100,000 signatures with the goal of putting the controversial training center on the ballot. Despite support for the referendum from U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, former state Rep. Stacey Abrams, and Bernice King, the city refused to count the signatures to determine if enough had been gathered to force a vote.
Mayor Andre Dickens has been a staunch supporter of the facility, asserting that more training is necessary to reduce instances of police brutality.
Now that the training center is open, activists say they remain committed to fighting against the trend of increased spending on policing and decreased spending on public services.
'Our fight isn't over until Cop City falls and Atlanta reallocates funding towards services that actually keep our communities safe,' reads a press release from The People's Campaign to Stop Cop City, which held a press conference at Jackson Street Bridge on Tuesday. 'Cop City may be built, but Atlantans' resistance remains as strong and determined as ever.'
Capital B Atlanta toured Cop City in December for an inside look at the training center. This is what we saw.
Lt. Greg Lyon, commander of the mounted patrol, talks with the media. The horse stables that were previously located in Grant Park have been moved to the new training center.
The name 'Cop City' nods to the mock city that includes a fake gas station/convenience store, school/apartment building, and two-story home where police and SWAT officers will practice conducting raids and responding to hostage situations and active shooter threats.
Atlanta Police Chief Administrative Officer Marshall Freeman stands in front of the greenspace that will become a 0.9-mile walking trail that is open to the public.
Police and fire recruits will take public safety courses in the main classroom building, which also has a community space designated for local groups like neighborhood watch to hold meetings.
Recruits, officers, and firefighters will practice driving squad cars, fire trucks, or motorcycles.
ABOVE: Atlanta Fire and Rescue Chief Roderick Smith stands in front of the mock fire station at the training center. BELOW: In the six-story burn tower, firefighters will practice rescues in full gear and conditions that simulate a house fire.
The post Inside 'Cop City': What Atlanta's Controversial Training Center Looks Like appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
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Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sheetz racial discrimination case is on the chopping block as Trump rewrites civil rights
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The Great Un-Awokening
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The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Trump has rejected police reform. States and localities must take the lead.
Five years after a Minneapolis police officer brutally murdered a handcuffed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes, prompting worldwide protests against wrongful police killings of Black people, the Trump administration has taken a giant step back from police reform. The Justice Department announced in May that it is abandoning agreements reached with police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville, Ky., mandating reforms designed to reduce killings, brutality and other police misconduct. The Justice Department is conducting a review to determine if it should drop similar agreements with about a dozen other police departments. On top of this, the Justice Department will end civil rights investigations of alleged criminal conduct by the Louisiana State Police and police departments in Memphis, Mount Vernon, N.Y., Oklahoma City, Phoenix and Trenton, N.J. Thankfully, Minneapolis officials announced that they will abide by their agreement, known as a consent decree, reached with the Justice Department in the closing days of the Biden presidency. But it is absurd to depend on police departments to police themselves. The federal government has a duty to protect people from police who engage in criminal conduct. The dangerous pullback by the Justice Department is likely to result in more wrongful deaths at the hands of police — particularly of Black people and members of other minority groups. A nationwide count by the Washington Post of deadly shootings by police from 2015 through 2024 found that Black people 'are killed by police at more than twice the rate' of white people in America. The number of non-Hispanic whites killed by police was 4,657, compared with 2,484 Black people. Because only 14 percent of the American population is Black, the number of people killed by police annually averaged 6.1 per million of the Black population, compared with 2.5 per million of the white population. There are, of course, times when police must use deadly force to prevent the killing of others. But this wasn't the case with Floyd and many others killed by police. Floyd, who was unarmed, was only suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. As a Black man like Floyd, I have experienced the unfair and harsh treatment some officers give to people who look like us. I've been stopped on the road and detained in front of my home by police several times when doing nothing wrong. I've been ordered out of my home and car to lay on the ground, had guns pointed at me, been handcuffed and been threatened with arrest. I don't think I would be treated this way were it not for the color of my skin. Most police officers never beat, shoot or kill anyone. They risk their lives to keep us safe and deserve our gratitude. But it is naive to believe that officers can do no wrong, that we live in a colorblind society or that there is no such thing as systemic racism. In the wake of the Trump administration's rejection of its duty to protect us all from police misconduct, the job of implementing needed reforms must go to state and local governments that oversee police agencies. Here are some actions they should take. Increase police funding to implement reforms: After Floyd's murder, some progressives adopted the slogan 'defund the police.' That was a mistake. Police departments need more federal, state and local government funding to better train and pay officers and to put more officers on the street to do police work the right way. More funding will make it less likely that police engage in the kind of unlawful violence that killed Floyd and too many others. Polling by CBS in 2022 found only 9 percent of Americans believed providing less funding for police would help prevent violent crime, while 49 percent said more funding for police would do so. A Gallup poll the same year found 89 percent of Americans believed minor or major changes were needed to improve policing — including 87 percent of whites, 90 percent of Hispanics and 95 percent of Blacks. Focus on preventing crime, not just crime response: Putting more cops on the street and having them get out of their patrol cars to build relationships with people and businesses helps officers gather intelligence about bad actors. The increased presence of officers in communities will prevent crime. This is an expensive but necessary step if we are serious about police reform. Independently investigate alleged misconduct: Rather than relying on police departments to police themselves and investigate officers accused of misconduct, states and localities should set up independent commissions to objectively conduct such investigations. Reward good cops and punish bad ones: Officers who report misconduct by colleagues should be rewarded financially and with promotions, while officers acting improperly should be disciplined, including with firing and prosecution when they commit crimes. A national database of fired officers should be established so bad cops can't get hired by departments in other localities. Increase police pay and education requirements: Raising police pay will make it easier to attract well-qualified job applicants. Departments should require every new hire to have at least two years of college and eventually a four-year degree. A 2017 national survey found that about 52 percent of officers had two-year college degrees, about 30 percent had four-year degrees and about 5 percent had graduate degrees. Governing Magazine reported in 2023 that 'research suggests that officers with college degrees generate fewer substantiated complaints and … are less likely to shoot or kill members of the public.' Increase screening of police recruits and veteran officers: Use psychological tests and in-depth interviews to identify those unsuitable for police work because they are too eager to use violence — especially if they feel threatened — or too prejudiced against certain groups. Increase officer training: Better training will make officers better able to do their jobs without resorting to deadly force. This should include training in psychology and mental health to assist officers in dealing with people experiencing a mental health crisis. Alternatively, set up a division of mental health police officers to address incidents where drugs or mental issues are the source of bad conduct. 'One in five fatal police shooting victims may have been experiencing a mental health crisis … at the time of their death,' a federal study of 633 deadly police shootings concluded. These recommendations are all common sense and promote justice and public safety. With the Trump administration abandoning its responsibility to investigate police misconduct and demand reforms, the job passes to state and local governments. Doing so would be a fitting tribute to George Floyd and the many others wrongfully killed by police. A. Scott Bolden is an attorney, former New York state prosecutor, NewsNation contributor and former chair of the Washington, D.C. Democratic Party.
