In April 2025, after years of public outrage, controversy and protest, the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, colloquially known as “Cop City,” officially opened. 

The property, which serves as a police and fire department training center, cost $67 million in taxpayer dollars. The facility’s construction was first announced in 2021 to improve the morale and retention of Atlanta’s police officers.

The project sparked criticism from local activists, who argued it would increase militarization in Atlanta’s police force and strain the environment, eventually coalescing into the “Stop Cop City” movement. Protests came to a head in January of 2023 when environmental activist Manuel Paez Teran was shot and killed by officers during a demonstration outside the training facility.

Nonetheless, the project continued, with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens arguing the training center would be an important measure to lowering instances of police brutality.

Which feels ironic.

Last month, Minneapolis City Council members debated the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that would cost $38 million. 

Proponents, including Mayor Jacob Frey’s administration, argued the center would be an important step toward police reform as the Minneapolis Police Department continues to recover following the murder of George Floyd.

Others, such as Council Members Soren Stevenson, Aisha Chughtai and Robin Wonsley, argue the funds could be invested in the community in other, more valuable ways.

Though the scale of the proposed Minneapolis facility is nowhere near that of Atlanta’s, the approach to addressing police brutality is similar. 

But is this really what MPD needs?

University of Minnesota law professor Amy Sweasy said police force policy varies across departments, many of which have changed in the wake of Floyd’s murder.

“Minneapolis, in particular, their police use of force policy in their policy manual has undergone significant revision since 2020,” Sweasy said. “Both as a result of the murder of George Floyd and the oversight of the court because of the consent decree that city entered into with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.”

Reform and investigation efforts commenced almost immediately following Floyd’s death. In June 2020, the city and MDHR agreed to ban the use of chokeholds and mandate other policy changes through a temporary restraining order.

In the following years, MDHR conducted an investigation that identified a pattern of race-based discrimination and violence within MPD, reinforced by insufficient training, minimal accountability mechanisms and poor oversight from the city. An investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice yielded similar results.

The consent agreement Sweasy referenced, reached in 2023 by community members and police officers alike to address concerns from both parties, required MPD to make policy changes addressing race-based policing, designating an independent group to track their progress. 

Minneapolis completed the National Incident Management System Reset in 2024 to improve consistency, communication and training for emergency response situations.

“The number of deadly force incidents in Minnesota since 2020 has, with the exception of 2024, either stayed flat or gone down,” Sweasy said when discussing statistics from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that detail the number of deadly force incidents across the state.

Sweasy said she cannot speculate on what has caused these numbers to decrease or stay constant. Though any of the above reform measures could have factored into this, or possibly fewer encounters on the streets overall, the state’s strong response to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti demonstrated the state’s thoughts on the issue, she added.

“What we saw here in January and the response of the community to Operation Metro Surge, it suggested to me that this community remains pretty sophisticated when it comes to these events and really understands what the issues and concerns are with the police use of force,” Sweasy said.

In considering the impact of Cop City in Atlanta, researchers from the Brookings Institution, along with stakeholders in Atlanta, St. Louis and Baltimore, emphasized the importance of community-based approaches to preventing police violence and tackling issues such as housing, poverty and discrimination that lead to crime in the first place. In this sense, Cop City can be understood within a militarized framework, rather than a public health approach to public safety.

And that’s not what we need in Minneapolis.

When we look at the factors leading to rising violence in Minneapolis, many are quick to point to the shrinking police presence since 2020. However, this perspective often ignores influences like increased unemployment, school closures and lingering racial inequities.

As Sweasy recognized, the Minneapolis community has consistently demonstrated a particular sensitivity to police violence. After two months of Operation Metro Surge, when thousands of federal officers flooded our streets and arrested more than 3,700 Minnesota residents, it’s hard to believe most Minnesotans would be looking for more militarization of our cities.

There are compelling reasons why the training facility could be valuable in maintaining the reforms passed since 2020. However, when considering the other ways this money could improve our communities, whether through building affordable housing or investing in public schools, it’s hard to believe this is the best option. 

And in a community with a demonstrated commitment to public engagement like Minneapolis, I think many of its residents would agree.

“I think this community knows a lot more about this kind of thing than they did in 2020,” Sweasy said. “And if you go back even further, 10 years before that, there’s always been a significant portion of community members who, for lots of valid reasons, have been more tuned into these issues.”

Whatever happens, Minneapolis is watching.