Tension between the community and police has been more than apparent in recent years. Police misconduct in cases like George Floyd in 2020 has sparked nationwide discussion and protests. Today, rampant conversation and protests continue in Atlanta with the approval from the Atlanta City Council to build and fund a public safety training center (PSTC) for police officers and firefighters.
The 85-acre training facility will be built in the Weelaunee Forest of Dekalb County. The rest of the land (265 acres) will remain greenspace open to the public, featuring trails, ballfields, and picnic areas. The PSTC will contain an emergency vehicle operator course for emergency driver training, a lab to test technological innovations, a training fire station, and a mock city to prepare officers for real-world situations. City officials claim that the center could improve policing and safety while boosting morale and officer retention rates by providing a physical space to receive training. The development of the PSTC is already past 75% complete. Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum reports that they plan to move in and begin to use the center late this year.
The approval of the training center and its funding has resulted in a large amount of public backlash. Atlanta residents have hit the streets and organized marches and rallies. Protestors have assembled at Atlanta’s Mayor Andre Dickens’ residence, chained themselves to construction cranes, and attempted to plant trees on the site. Elderly protestors have been arrested, and Cop City Activist Manuel Paez Teràn, also known as Tortuguita, was even killed by a Georgia State Trooper; the deadly force was deemed “objectively reasonable” by District Attorney George R. Christian.
The retaliation stems from concerns about the militarization of the police, environmental racism, and the $109.6 million in operating costs.
Critics claim that the training center’s completion can further police militarization. Some “stop cop city” advocates view the facility as a “war base.” People are concerned that the police will learn to use military tactics to control individuals and the movement of the general public.
Contrarily, Schiebaum underlined the center as a “need.” He said, “As of right now, the city of Atlanta does not have its own training facility,” and he emphasized that the PSTC would allow responders to be “completely trained and prepared across a range of professions to handle the 3,000 calls a day [that they] receive.”
Schierbaum associates the center with the potential for greater safety for both police and Atlantans, while rivals of the center associate it with the potential to bring more safety issues for Atlantans.
More concerns from critics and environmental experts claim that the building and use of the center could lead to environmental changes that can affect the neighboring community, the majority of whom are Black and below the poverty line. The facility will practice and use urban warfare, bomb simulations, burn towers, and firing ranges; the area’s air quality could be affected by pollutants and a slight increase in temperature. The possibility and impact of these environmental factors increase depending on the amount of the tree canopy that is destroyed.
However, Schierbaum and the Atlanta Police Department have stated that “The Atlanta Police Foundation has committed to replace any hardwood tree destroyed in construction with over 100 new hardwoods, as well as replace any invasive species trees with new hardwood plantings.”
Some taxpayers also see this as a misuse of city funds. Although roughly a third of the funds for the PSTC was donated by the Atlanta Police Foundation, the remaining tens of millions of dollars would be covered in taxpayer funds.
This allocation of money raises concerns about the city’s priorities. There are many other issues that Atlantans would like to see prioritized, such as accessibility to affordable housing, transit, matching jobs with qualified workers, and improving education quality.
Regarding taxpayer dissatisfaction, Schierbaum expressed confusion. Schiebaum said the establishment of the PSTC is a “commitment to keep you safe” and an “investment in the Atlanta community.”
Others, like Atlanta City Councilman Antonio Lewis, think there are better ways to invest in the community. “I’m practical, but the price tag hit me. I didn’t vote in favor of [the funding for the PSTC]. I would rather use half of the money towards universal basic income,” said Lewis.
“The scale [of the PSTC] and price alarm me,” says Lewis, “I believe this sentiment can be attributed to most opponents of the PSTC.” Stop Cop City activists used such concerns to produce a petition with over 100,000 signatures, which would allow for a vote on PTSC during the next municipal election. The authorization of these signatures has not been easy. For a signature to be counted towards the petition, the signee has to have been a registered Atlanta voter since the 2021 city election, otherwise, the signature can be thrown out.
The city has refused to accept tens of thousands of signatures, outlining a process where the city has to verify each signature.
On top of struggles to authorize signatures, there are ongoing legal disputes. A federal judge ruled that collectors could collect signatures for sixty additional days, but forty-one days later the Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of proceedings, freezing the original court order. There is now a dilemma of what to do with signatures collected past the day of the freeze from the Circuit Court of Appeals.
Wednesday, June 7, 2023. // Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
While cop city protestors are hoping for enough signatures (15% of registered voters who participated in the last city election, or 58,000 votes) so the PTSC can be voted on by the people of Atlanta, more legal disputes continue as the city challenges the whole referendum process. The city has argued that the ballot process initiative should be done away with.
There have been claims that the city is illegally trying to push the training center forward. If the issue reaches the ballot, it is a real possibility the building of the PTSC will not continue. Protestors urge that the mayor and city take heed of the people’s voice and democratic principles. Mayor Dickens has dismissed the referendum and vetoed an earlier proposition made by some city council members to place the PSTC on the ballot. “He [Mayor Dickens] was put in a peculiar situation. He tried to handle it the best he could,” suggested Lewis.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How would we measure the success of the training center? Schierbaum offered, “By how many lives we save.” But that wouldn’t truly measure the success of the training center. The public safety training center will succeed in providing the necessary personnel with a place to conduct training. You can measure its success in boosting retention and morale rates. But the question remains: how can we measure policing behavior and safety as a result of the training center to justify $109.6 million?
