ATLANTA — Mayor Andre Dickens provided an update on Wednesday following the first meeting of his newly-formed task force for community input on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.
Dickens, joined by task force members, including Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, spoke about their next steps, proclaiming that the training center is "moving forward, because we need it."
"Every part of this project that has been scutinized and has been found to be fully compliant with the law and all environmental protections requirements," Dickens said.
He went on to say that the community is always welcome to bring ideas forward as the training center's construction is underway and brought several task force members forward, including Dana Roberts, a mother and Atlanta native who lost her son to gun violence.
"Efffective and compassionate policing can contribute to the protection of our children, families and our neighborhoods," Roberts said.
Dickens said "good ideas" are welcome when it comes to moving forward with the training center and that many more decisions will come up needing community input.
The planned facility for police and fire training has faced long-running protests by opponents who call it "Cop City." The task force was announced in February as a response to activist and community pushback on the facility.
"Why not listen to the larger community of Atlanta and stop building this?" Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders said at the time the task force was announced.
Over 40 influential community figures nonetheless joined the task force, including Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs, the Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley and radio personality Dr. Rashad Richey.
Last week, the facility got the final regulatory go-ahead for construction. The DeKalb County zoning board rejected an appeal against its land disturbance permit - essentially a building permit for the site.
The task force is comprised of four subgroups that will provide an initial set of recommendations by July:
- Parks and green space
- Visioning, memorializing, and repurposing the former Atlanta Prison Farm site
- Sustainability and resilience
- Police, fire and E-911 training curriculum
For more on "Cop City" and the controversy surrounding the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, see here: What is 'Cop City'? Explaining the controversy around a future police training center in Atlanta