Atlanta police use Signal to discuss ‘Cop City’ amid outcry over transparency

High-ranking members of police department using encrypted phone app to communicate about project amid public concern

High-ranking members of Atlanta’s police department have been using Signal, an encrypted phone app, to communicate about the controversial police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” – to each other, to other police departments and to companies involved in building the project, the Guardian has learned.

The department’s move to Signal occurred some time earlier this year, after several years of public outcry about a lack of transparency regarding the project on such basic issues as cost and environmental impact. It appears the department began using the app around the same time multiple police agencies entered a forested public park where protesters were camped – about a mile from the planned “Cop City” site – on 18 January, resulting in state troopers shooting and killing Manuel Paez Terán, AKA “Tortuguita”.