Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum looks out at the public safety training center's mock city on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, where officers will practice responding to emergencies at a convenience store, two-story house, apartment and commercial-style building. (Chamian Cruz/WABE)
Atlanta’s new public safety training center that’s been the subject of protests for years is finally built, and officials must now find a way to balance security with community building.
A first look at the 85-acre, now-$115 million complex in the South River Forest in unincorporated DeKalb County featured walking trails, dog kennels, classrooms, a six-story burn building and even a barn near the front entrance that will house 11 horses.
The training center will be used by Atlanta’s police, firefighters and emergency dispatchers.
“We’re very excited about this,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said. “We have the World Cup coming in just a few months actually at this point, and this mounted patrol will be key in protecting our guests from around the word.”
The barn near the front entrance of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center will house 11 horses that the police department’s mounted patrol unit uses for community building and events throughout the city. (Chamian Cruz/WABE)
The distinctive wail and yelp of sirens later echoed down Constitution Road, as police officers demonstrated how they’ll use the facility’s new driving course to practice high-speed pursuits and skid pad to control their cars on wet pavement.
The facility keeps first responders from having to travel outside the city to Forsyth County and South Georgia to train. It also replaces the old Atlanta Police Training Center at 180 Southside Industrial Parkway, which was condemned and closed in 2021.
Atlanta police officers practice driving on the skills course at the city’s new public safety training center on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Chamian Cruz/WABE)
During the tour, Schierbaum explained how the mock city — complete with a convenience store, two-story house, apartment and commercial-style building — on one corner of the property will be used to replicate emergencies like a barricaded gunman or drug dealing operation. The feature is the reason opponents nicknamed the training center “Cop City.”
“This is where we take our newest officers or our 20-year veterans and keep them up on the skills they need to act on your behalf while there’s fear, while there’s adrenaline pumping,” Schierbaum said.
Crews are still putting on the finishing touches, but officials expect the center to be fully up and running in the first quarter of 2025.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Attorney General Chris Carr and representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have toured the site. Members of the community stakeholder advisory committee that was created to provide input on the facility also got to see it firsthand.
The new 85-acre, $115 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center sits in the middle of the South River Forest in unincorporated DeKalb County. (Chamian Cruz/WABE)
“We are enhancing and improving public safety in the city of Atlanta as a model to help keep people safe,” Dickens said. “This is a project that we are delivering this year, as we stated. We are moving in as we speak.”
Dickens has not wavered in his support for the project since the city and Atlanta Police Foundation began working together to build the center in 2021 despite harsh criticism from opponents, who, for years, have said they’re concerned the center will worsen police militarization and harm the surrounding environment.
Legal challenges to try to stop construction are still pending, while some opponents have taken to arson on construction equipment and police vehicles.
The family of Manuel Teran announced on the same day as the tour that they were filing yet another lawsuit — two years after state troopers shot and killed the 26-year-old environmental activist who was camping with other protestors outside so-called “Cop City.” The incident gained national attention.
Belkis Terán, whose son was shot and killed by state troopers while protesting the construction of an Atlanta police training center, speaks at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Decatur, Ga., Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlotte Kramon)
The Atlanta City Council recently approved $1.7 million in additional funding to secure the site, and the police chief said they’ll do “whatever we can do to make sure that this is a safe place for learning.”
“If you want to protest the training center, if you want to protest how police are trained, we’re going to give you an environment to do that in and we’re going to protect your right to do that,” Schierbaum said. “If your intent, however, is to damage or burn, then we’re going to arrest you, and we do have an effective plan to make sure that does not happen here.”
