LACEY, Wash. — Videos are spreading on social media about so-called “Cop Cities,” nicknames for large police departments and training centers. There is debate online about investing in those facilities, with a lot of focus on Atlanta, where there have been clashes between protesters and police.
Now, a city in Washington is in the spotlight. The city of Lacey is where a new police station and training facility will be built. Critics say it will worsen police militarization, but supporters say an up-to-date facility will lead to better training for officers.
Earlier this month in Lacey, a city groundbreaking ceremony was interrupted.
"Several protesters showed up and yelled and screamed,” said Lacey City Councilmember Lenny Greenstein.
The protesters made their presence known at the future site of a police station and training facility.
"It is a little late once we start putting shovels in the ground,” said Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders. "Some individuals smashed out the windows of an excavator and put up one of their signs on the excavator."
Their signs said, "Stop Cop City."
"The whole 'Cop City' thing kind of started in Atlanta,” said Sanders.
In Atlanta, there have been violent clashes over a planned 85-acre police and firefighter training center. Police say protesters are targeting the construction company. The 'Stop Cop City' movement is criticizing multimillion-dollar law enforcement projects across the country, including the one in Lacey.
"What I hear when I see that is the potential issues,” said Bunchy Carter of Tacoma. "The noise pollution with the shooting range, there is a forested area there with wildlife. It further militarizes them to make sure they endanger more lives in marginalized communities across the country."
"A lot of the feedback we are getting, the negative stuff, is about militarizing our police. There is nothing about this that is militarizing our police in any way,” said Greenstein.
Councilmember Greenstein says Lacey has outgrown its police station.
"The station we are currently in was built when we were a city of 15,000 residents. Now we are almost 60,000,” he said.
At Lacey City Hall, conversations started years ago with public meetings and a growing price tag.
"It went from $42 million to now $61 million, but we have the reserves in place,” said Mayor Andy Ryder during a December council meeting.
"We are not asking for any additional new taxes. We are paying for this with money we already have,” said Greenstein. "The training facility will bring what I would hope everybody wants – the best-trained police in the state."
Councilmember Greenstein says the building will have an emergency operations center and it will support the community. He says in the future, he wants to see the training facility used by law enforcement agencies around the region.