Atlanta City Council Approves ‘Cop City’ Funding Despite Protests

The Atlanta City Council voted overwhelmingly early Tuesday to approve $31 million in funding for the construction of a sprawling $90 million police and fire training complex, backing a project that has provoked nearly two years of sustained protests and further inflamed tensions over law enforcement in the city.

The atmosphere inside City Hall leading up to the vote reflected how emotionally charged the debate over the planned complex had become. City employees were instructed to work remotely on Monday, as officials warned of security threats. The building was packed deep into the night and into Tuesday morning, as hundreds of people jammed inside for the council meeting.

It lasted more than 16 hours, with well over 300 people addressing the council before the vote. One after another, the speakers expressed opinions that illuminated the complex tangle of racial, political and environmental considerations that have shaped the city’s conversation over the project, which has become known to many by the nickname conceived by its critics, “Cop City.”

The vast majority of those who stepped up to speak were critical, echoing arguments that had been repeated through months of demonstrations: The facility was costing money that could better be directed elsewhere; it would train the city’s police force to become more militarized; and it would disturb a precious expanse of green space in a rapidly developing metropolis.

“Cop City has already proven to be a source of violence, oppression, militarized approaches to civilians, unconstitutional activity and economic and environmental disaster,” said Susi Durán, a leader in the Atlanta chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

Approval of the $31 million in spending had been widely expected, yet the vote was still a test of whether opposition to the project, officially known as the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, had led to any wavering by the city’s leaders. The 15-member council voted 11 to 4 in favor.

The council is nonpartisan, but most of its members identify as Democrats, some more progressive than others; a few members lean conservative. In 2021, under a different makeup, the council had approved the ground lease agreement for the site of the facility.

The cost of the training center is supposed to be divided between taxpayers and funds raised by the Atlanta Police Foundation, a nonprofit group supporting the force. But there has been growing concern over just how much taxpayers would ultimately have to shoulder, prompting some council members to re-examine their votes.

The unease was centered on a lease-back provision in which the city would pay $1.2 million a year for 30 years, which raises the total cost to taxpayers to $67 million. Mayor Andre Dickens, responding to questions raised by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, issued a statement last week arguing that the payments would not be an added burden to taxpayers, noting that the city “has and continues to pay more than $1.4 million each year for leases to use other facilities for public safety training.”

The plans call for transforming an old prison farm into what supporters envision as a modern facility suited to the needs of a police force working in a large and complicated city. There will be areas to practice driving techniques, and mock setups of a convenience store, a home and a nightclub, allowing trainees to learn in simulations of circumstances they could encounter in the field.

What began as opposition to the facility itself swelled over time into an intense anger over the unflinchingly aggressive approach officials took to quell protests.

Demonstrations at the planned site, located in DeKalb County just outside the city of Atlanta, erupted into violent clashes between law enforcement officers and protesters. In January, a 26-year-old environmental activist named Manuel Esteban Paez Terán was fatally shot and a state trooper was wounded.

Prosecutors have pursued domestic terrorism charges against many protesters, as state officials argued that the unrest had been caused by agitators who were not from Georgia.

Last week, officials went a step further: raiding the house that served as the headquarters of a bail fund for activists, and arresting three people who were involved in the fund, accusing them of money laundering and charity fraud.

Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, claimed that the three people had “facilitated and encouraged domestic terrorism.” But the charges were assailed by activists, civil rights groups and some elected officials as unfounded and nothing more than retaliation for lawful protests. Georgia’s two United States senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both Democrats, expressed concern over the arrests.

“These tactics, coupled with the limited public information provided so far,” Mr. Warnock said in a post on Twitter, “can have a chilling effect on nonviolent, constitutionally-protected free speech activities those of us in the fight for justice have been engaged in for years.”

At the council meeting that began on Monday afternoon and ended at about 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, critics spoke for hours during the public comment portion. Yet there were indications of a more diverse range of perspectives: a few residents argued that the project was necessary, and that the protesters did not represent the entirety of Atlanta.

One police officer told the council that the city’s current police training facilities were not only worn down, but also inadequate to prepare officers for the demands of the job.

A woman who spoke on behalf of the Georgia Federation of Public Service Employees had come to the microphone to push for better pay for city workers, but ended her comments with a searing critique of the opposition, whom she described as environmental activists masquerading as a voice for Black Atlantans.

“Let’s be clear: This fight is about trees for the privileged,” she said. “I resent those who use the pain and struggle of Black people to advance their cause.”

At one point during the meeting, in a heated exchange, Michael J. Bond, a councilman, said the city was fulfilling its duty to employees by supporting the training center. “If we as council members, who are fiduciaries of the city, don’t provide the employees with the equipment, facilities, salary and benefits that they deserve, we run afoul of federal labor law,” Mr. Bond said.

Just before the final vote, council members amended the proposal to include a list of new requirements: The facility cannot use helicopters and explosives, and training must include programming that teaches officers to safeguard free speech; to minimize and recognize biases; and to avoid interactions with residents that escalate into angry and possibly violent confrontations.

But three council members who opposed the spending still implored their colleagues to join them. “We need to do better as a city,” said Jason Dozier, who cast one of the dissenting votes.

When the meeting adjourned on Tuesday morning, a chorus of boos erupted, along with chants of “Cop City will never be built!”

Dr. Mark Spencer, a physician, had waited in line for nine hours to speak. He called the training center a misuse of taxpayer money. He said his work at a hospital in the city had provided him with an unsettling panorama of the array of urgent challenges confronting many residents — challenges that could be addressed with those funds.

“We see patients in Atlanta every day that don’t have their most basic needs met,” he said. He noted a lack of access to affordable housing, nutritious food, education and mental health care.

Some speakers stressed the proximity of their homes to the site and the ways their lives would be directly affected, pushing back against state officials’ assertion that many if not most of the project’s opponents are not from Atlanta.

“A giant simulated city in the woods where police will train in riot techniques because they’re scared of what will happen the next time they kill someone like George Floyd or Rayshard Brooks does nothing for us,” said Clifton Kelley, an emergency medical technician who lives near the site, referring to Black men whose deaths at the hands of police officers touched off unrest in 2020.

Keyanna Jones, a local activist, urged the City Council to reconsider. She also encouraged Atlanta as a whole to search for common ground. A winning vote was a setback, she said, but not an insurmountable one.

“We want y’all to know we’re not letting this go,” she told the council. “No matter how you vote today, no matter which way this goes, this is not the end, because we have a duty to stand against injustice in all of its forms — whether you like the way we do it or not.”