The anticipated spring opening of the facility commonly referred to as “Cop City” was one of the highlights of Mayor Andre Dickens’ Tuesday night State of the City Address during a speech that felt like both a victory lap and a kickoff for his reelection campaign.
The Atlanta Police Department’s Facebook page announced the Public Safety Training Center news late Monday afternoon. Video footage showing police on motorcycles circling orange cones in a parking lot lit up the large onstage projector screen inside the Woodruff Arts Center auditorium Tuesday evening.
“Today, under Mayor Dickens’ leadership, the new, state-of-the-art Public Safety Training Center is open for business,” the video narrator declared before his voice was drowned out by applause from hundreds of supporters in the room.
The looming launch of Cop City is one of several key political battles Dickens has won against adversaries from both sides of the political spectrum since taking office in 2021. During his remarks, the mayor noted his defeat of the conservative Buckhead City movement (with the help of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp) in addition to his apparent triumph over the progressive push to stop Cop City.
“When they tried to tear our city in two, we fought back and kept our city whole,” Dickens said during his address. “When they tried to stop Cop City, we fought back and built the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.”
Lowering crime, creating more affordable housing, and securing higher-paying jobs have been some of the top concerns for Black voters since Dickens took office three years ago. The former Atlanta City Council member highlighted progress his administration has made on all those fronts throughout his speech while noting there’s still work to be done over the next four years as he seeks a second term.
Dickens touted reducing homicides by 26%, robberies by 15%, and auto thefts by 29% since 2022. He reminded those in attendance of the 2023 launch of the city’s first-ever Department of Labor and the 14,000 young people hired through his Summer Youth Employment Program.
Dickens also said his administration is on track to exceed its goal of creating 20,000 affordable housing units by the year 2030.
“We are building or have families already moved into over 11,000!” he boasted during his speech.
He noted the list of accolades and honors Atlanta has received during his three-year tenure. That list includes Money magazine naming Atlanta as the best place to live in America for two consecutive years, Black Enterprise calling the city the best place to start a business in 2024, and the Mortgage Research Center dubbing the metro area as the best for Black homebuyers.
Critics of Dickens contend the Atlanta he’s building is displacing much of the city’s native, low-income, Black population in favor of a wealthier, more diverse group of transplants relocating here from around the nation.
The mayor acknowledged the city’s ongoing homelessness crisis during his remarks, as event organizers showed footage of him working with unhoused locals during the city’s latest Point-In-Time homeless census count in late January. He took credit for creating the city’s Rapid Response housing program for the homeless and working with City Council last year to set aside $60 million to combat homelessness in Atlanta.
“Our Housing Help Center has helped seniors and legacy residents stay in their homes, and we are deeply committed to helping our homeless population,” the mayor said. “Through our housing-first strategy, we have provided more homes to homeless individuals than at any time in our history.”
