The group of community members assembled three years ago to provide input on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, widely known as “Cop City,” met for the final time via Zoom on Thursday, Dec. 5.
The facility is set to open later this month, according to officials from the Atlanta Police Department (APD) and the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), although an exact date has not yet been shared.
“We’re going to be working really hard in the month of December on final inspections and getting our construction entrances into final entrances,” Alan Williams, APF’s project manager for the training center, said during the Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee (CASC) meeting.
At the Dec. 2 meeting of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, Mayor Andre Dickens said: “The public safety training center is near completion. We will be doing a preview later this month, and then a formal opening when it warms up.”
CASC chair Alison Clark shared a brief slideshow of progress at the site. There were no security updates since the last meeting, according to Assistant Chief of APD Carven Tyus.
In November, Atlanta City Council members approved an additional $1.7 million in security funding at the training center, which APD officials said is necessary due to “the continued threats of violence.”
At the last CASC meeting in October, members discussed installing facial recognition technology and other security measures across the site, including in public greenspaces. The CASC has not yet toured the facility.
LaChandra Burks, Chief Operating Officer for the City of Atlanta, thanked the committee members on behalf of Mayor Dickens for working together with his administration and city council on the project.
“You will be hearing from the mayor soon around a preview date, and I hope that you all will be able to come out and join him at that time,” Burks said.
Once inspections are complete and furniture is moved in, APD expects to begin shifting personnel to the Public Safety Training Center site “as we move into the very top of the year,” APD’s Chief Administrative Officer Marshall Freeman said.
It’s great to see the progress of the Public Safety Training Center! I hope everything will be completed on time. If anyone needs to calculate time for upcoming events, check out time calculator!
Millions of Atlanta residents’ tax dollars going to this and thousands who wanted Cop City on the ballot ignored. A continued failure of Atlanta misleadership class is tragic. What democracy?