DeKalb’s plans for new public safety training center could spark familiar fight
Nearly a year after Atlanta opened a highly contested public safety training center in southern DeKalb County, officials there are now developing a plan for their own to serve police and firefighters.
DeKalb’s Board of Commissioners last week approved spending $500,000 to design and plan a new public safety training center. The funding will come from a 1-cent special purpose local option sales tax, which, according to the county’s website, is meant to improve “quality of life for residents” and create “stronger, more vibrant communities” through investments in public safety, transportation, recreation and other projects.
“We want to make sure that we have the best trained police officers and firefighters that are providing service to our citizens, and it’s going to start there,” Darnell Fullum, DeKalb’s director of public safety and former fire chief, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via phone Tuesday.
Many unknowns remain, such as the location, total price tag and timeline for potentially breaking ground on a new center, which Fullum said is overdue and will benefit the community.
But some, such as Keyanna Jones Moore, feel a sense of déjà vu.
The activist and pastor at Park Avenue Baptist Church opposed Atlanta’s $117 million training center. Moore watched from her own backyard as the city planned and built the facility near the South River in DeKalb.
She told the AJC she is ready to lead more protests over a proposed DeKalb training facility.
“There’s just so much more that $500,000 could be used for, and this is a slap in the face to the people of DeKalb County,” she said.
Plans for a DeKalb training facility have been in the works for a while. Fullum said that back in 2017, county officials were already hoping to use SPLOST funding to design a new center. He said firefighters and officers have been training in separate, “dated” facilities that don’t have all the components of a modern-day training center.
Fullum said those buildings located across the county were never meant to serve law enforcement in the first place. A new and intentional facility, he said, will ensure first responders can learn the skills necessary to keep residents safe while also centralizing operations.
All the while, the county has continued to invest in its current training facilities. On the same day the board approved the $500,000 expense geared toward planning for a new center, another $3 million in SPLOST funding was allocated for renovations at a former Lithonia elementary school that serves as a police training site and east precinct, Fullum said. A board document detailed needed improvements to the HVAC system, roofing and other building systems.
“We’ve constantly been improving those facilities but knowing that the long-term goal would be to have that state-of-the-art training facility that both of those agencies deserve,” Fullum said.
DeKalb’s other current police and fire training facilities include a firing range on North Goddard Road, police and fire headquarters on West Exchange Place and a fire training facility on Warren Road. Documents from the March 10 board meeting state the “decentralized” nature of the facilities create “operational inefficiencies, space limitation, and infrastructure constraints.”
Authorities have not yet picked a site for the new center, and Fullum said the county does not want to limit itself, so it’s allowing the possibility of split facilities if it cannot secure a large enough single property. Potential sites include areas near the DeKalb jail, near Avondale Dunaire Park and near Fire Station 20.
Planning and design work will begin next month and is expected to be finalized by December. The recent spending approval does not finalize any building plans.
The AJC reached out to DeKalb CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson and the county’s police department about the proposal and has not heard back.
When Atlanta’s public safety training facility was being planned off Constitution Road near the South River, Moore lived not far from the site. In 2023, she relocated her family to a home near Columbia High School, about eight miles east and still in DeKalb County.
She was among the critics who questioned the need for that facility, its cost and its location.
The Atlanta training center sparked numerous protests, multiple lawsuits and violence. During what authorities called a “clearing operation” at the site in 2023, a state trooper was wounded, and an activist was fatally shot. In December, a Fulton County judge issued an order dismissing racketeering charges against dozens of activists, but Attorney General Chris Carr announced last month the Georgia Court of Appeals would hear his case to continue with the prosecution.
Officials estimate damage to construction equipment and police vehicles totaled more than $10 million. They also said the need for more security at the site was a big reason project costs spiraled upward to $117 million on property that was already owned by the city.
A grassroots movement known as “Stop Cop City” coalesced a diverse group of opponents: environmental advocates fearing damage to the South River Forest and people worried about militarization of police. Moore said she has been part of the “Faith Coalition to Stop Cop City,” which she said is comprised of clergy members and other faith leaders.
Moore said she would rather see DeKalb’s money spent on improving roads and fixing potholes, the water and sewer systems, a shelter and resources for the homeless community, and more mental health and medical services in south DeKalb.
“I believe that it would be a tremendous waste of time, money and effort, and there’s much more that could be done with $500,000 to help the community than try to build a militarized police training facility when they got one down the street,” Moore said.
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