Atlanta officials declined to verify the tens of thousands of signatures submitted on Monday by activists aiming to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training center, citing a recent court order.
The activists had celebrated after claiming they had collected over 116,000 signatures from Atlanta residents, well above the number required to trigger a vote on the project dubbed “Cop City” by its critics. However, shortly after they began delivering boxes of paperwork to the clerk’s office, Atlanta officials stated they couldn’t initiate the verification process due to a missed August 21 deadline.
While a federal judge had previously extended the deadline until September, an appellate court on September 1 halted the enforcement of that order, causing legal confusion.
This unexpected move by the city surprised and angered activists, who accused officials of trying to push through the project in an urban forest without proper democratic processes. Environmentalists and anti-police protesters from across the country have also protested against the center.
The Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition released a statement, saying, “This is yet another attempt by the city to obstruct democracy, revealing that Mayor Andre Dickens and the City of Atlanta are afraid of their constituents’ power. The City was notified of our intent to submit on Thursday but chose not to respond until after we arrived.”
An attorney for the city argued that officials were simply adhering to the law and waiting for a decision from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the legality of the judge’s deadline extension.
The signature-gathering effort, the largest in Georgia’s history, was carried out by hundreds of canvassers over the past three months, convincing voters to have a say in the project’s fate. Despite public opposition, the Atlanta City Council has consistently supported the $90 million, 85-acre campus.
Britney Whaley of the Working Families Party said during a celebratory news conference outside City Hall on Monday that “Today we go from ‘Let the people decide’ to ‘The people have decided,”’ before the city refused to process the forms. “They’ve decided that environmental concerns won’t go unnoticed. They’ve decided that our democracy matters, and we should be a part of it. They’ve decided that we should have a say in how our public resources are spent.”
The city had previously stated its intention to carefully review each signature and reject any that didn’t meet the requirements, unless the resident corrected the issue. Dickens, a key supporter of the training center, had expressed doubts about the petition’s success “if it’s done honestly.”
To be valid, a petition signatory must be a City of Atlanta resident registered to vote since the 2021 city election. Activists have criticized the signature matching requirement as “voter suppression.”
Organizers ultimately need 58,203 valid signatures, equivalent to 15% of registered voters from the last city election. However, the city won’t examine any forms until it receives a decision from the appeals court. In previous legal filings, city and state attorneys had called the effort “futile” and “invalid,” arguing that the state’s referendum process doesn’t allow for the reversal of the city’s lease agreement essential to the project.
Organizers based their referendum campaign on a successful effort in coastal Georgia, where Camden County residents voted overwhelmingly last year to prevent county officials from building a launchpad for commercial rockets.
Organizers of the “Stop Cop City” campaign assert that Atlanta officials have ignored widespread opposition to the training center, which they believe will lead to increased police militarization and worsen environmental damage in a predominantly Black, economically disadvantaged area. The campaign has lasted over two years and, at times, involved vandalism and violence, resulting in indictments against 61 people on racketeering charges by Georgia’s attorney general.
Officials counter that the campus will replace outdated facilities and boost police morale amid recruitment and retention challenges. Dickens has also stated that the facility will provide the “most progressive training and curriculum in the country” and that plans have been revised to address environmental concerns. As approved by the City Council in September 2021, the land is leased to the private Atlanta Police Foundation for $10 per year, and the proposed referendum seeks to cancel that agreement.
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