Atlanta police use Signal to discuss 'Cop City' amid outcry over transparency [View all]
Source: Guardian/US
High-ranking members of police department using encrypted phone app to communicate about project amid public concern.
High-ranking members of Atlantas 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 departments 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.
Its alarming. Decisions are being made about controversial developments
and theyre creating private, ephemeral means of communication, further eroding lines of trust with the public, said Alejandro Ruiz, co-director of Lucy Parsons Labs, a digital transparency research organization.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/04/cop-city-atlanta-police-signal-app
They are acting spy-like.
I don't know much of anything about this Cop-City, other than it is controversial.