Atlanta is moving to construct the country’s largest militarized police training facility.
By Jane houseal, Teen Vogue
This year, the night before Valentine’s Day, more than 200 people attended a city council meeting in Fitchburg, a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin. The house was packed because of one agenda item in particular: plans for a new $50 million police station, featuring a “regional training facility.” The plans, which were first proposed in late 2023, alarmed community members who have been fighting police violence in Wisconsin.

Freedom, Inc., a Madison-based queer feminist organization working in low-to-no-income Black and Southeast Asian communities, began mobilizing the community in response to the proposed plans. They drew comparisons to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, a large police training compound that has caused massive controversy and which local activists have dubbed “Cop City.” In the lead-up to Fitchburg’s city council meeting, organizers hosted teach-ins, gathered more than 1,600 signatures for a “Say No to Cop City Fitchburg” petition and canvassed the neighborhood, talking to, by their estimate, over 3,000 people.
They got the results they wanted — for now. After the meeting, which ran past midnight, the plans for the $49.2 million facility were rejected. The proposal is being sent back to the city’s design team, where it must be reworked to fit the original $35 million budget and be approved by the city council.
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