Live | View | The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center opens with a ceremony to cut ribbons,

ATLANTA – – After years of controversy and legal battles, the public security training center of Atlanta opens on Tuesday.

Officials reminded of the opening with a ceremony for cutting ribbons in the 85 hectare facility of $ 115 million in DEKALB County, which have described critics as “COP City”.

What you say:

Top -Brass at the Atlanta and Atlanta Fire police says that the facility enables the two groups to simply work together for emergency situations and to replace outdated facilities in the U -Bahn area.

The massive hub includes horse stables, a K-9 center, a driving course and a six-story rescue tower.

Among the other things on the property there is a false city, of which the officials say they enable them to react to crises.

“We have a two -story house, so that we can recover a call of domestic violence, a lost child, a barricaded shooter, to a person who does not want to be hidden. We have closed over 60 drug operations in the city this year. We explained a practical shop here last year”.

The extensive location includes a community hiking trail around a pond that was a direct result of the cooperation of the community. The fire chief said the officials met 19 times with the community.

“This place is shown for the public. People can eat for lunch or go on the paths,” said Marschall Freeman, Chief Administration Officer from APD.

What is the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center?

The background story:

The center of the Atlanta City Council in September 2021 has been a source of controversy and debates since its foundation.

City officials have emphasized the need for the 85 -hectare campus that replaces outdated facilities and should strengthen the efforts to recruit and bind personnel for public security. You have highlighted plans to include progressive training methods and maintain the surrounding green rooms.

However, the project was permanently exposed to by critics, who call it “Cop City”. Due to the location of the building location in a forested area in the southeast of Atlanta, environmental concerns have been expressed. Activists argue that the development could lead to considerable ecological damage and have a negative impact on local communities.

According to the city, the problems caused by demonstrators have increased the cost of the training center by around 20 million US dollars. In August 2023, the Attorney General of Georgia, Chris Carr, stated 61 demonstrators to use the state's anti-racking law and characterized it as “militant anarchists”.

As part of the campaign against the center, the opponents collected more than 108,000 signatures in 2023 and said that voters should be able to have their say in the project. These efforts have remained more than a year before the Federal Supreme Court.

Timetable:

The controversy around the center tightened with several incidents. In December 2022, the authorities arrested several demonstrators on site and accused them of domestic terrorism. Officials stated that these people were part of a coordinated effort to cease the construction by illegal funds.

In January 2023, a confrontation between law enforcement authorities and activists led to a fatal shootout by 26-year-old protestist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation explained that Terán first released the officials, an authority that was contested by other activists and Terán family.

Further unrest occurred in March 2023 when a group of masked people supposedly attacked the construction site that put devices in flames and confronted police officers. Then 23 people were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism.

Despite extensive public comments and hourly statements by the residents, the Atlanta city council approved additional financing of US 3 million $ 31 million for the project in June 2023. The majority of the residents who testified refused to build the facility.

Until December 2024, the city officials provided media tours through the almost completed facility and presented their state-of-the-art resources, which were designed for comprehensive training for first aiders. They repeated the role of the center in improving public security and community relationships.

At the beginning of this month, the city marked a large milestone by raising the American flag during a ceremony on site.

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