While Atlanta is nearing completion of a $109 million public safety training center, nearby Sandy Springs is in the early planning stages of its own facility.
Last year, the city formed the Sandy Springs Police Foundation to help raise funding for a firearms training facility that would cost as much as $42 million. The training center would be located at the new police headquarters and municipal court campus that is currently under construction on 7.4 acres on Morgan Falls Road.
Atlanta’s controversial police training center is located on 85 acres in unincorporated DeKalb County, and has been the focus of protests and violent clashes with police that has left one demonstrator dead.
Mayor Rusty Paul discussed Sandy Springs’ concept last week on the AJC’s Politically Georgia podcast. The city’s goal is to attract officers from federal and local law enforcement agencies who would come to get certified in the use of firearms.
Sandy Springs has already drawn interest in the use of the potential center from federal agencies and other law enforcement agencies including the GBI, Paul said.
The mayor said Sandy Springs is taking advantage of the “Less Crime Act” that provides Georgians with tax credits for donations made to local law-enforcement foundations.
‘All of our first responders are loved in this community and there’s a lot of money (and people) that would love to be able to help those folks do a better job,” Paul said. “These larger capital projects that would make them be even more effective and particularly keep them certified is (how) we plan to use the resources from the foundation.”
Fulton County also has plans to build a police training center, for about $15 million.
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