By Mark Woolsey

A Friday ribbon-cutting marked the official debut of the Cobb County Police Department’s $8.2 million Precinct 6 building near the Sandy Plains and Shallowford intersection in northeast Cobb.

It’s the first precinct to be located in District 3 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell’s territory. She helped spearhead the project since before it was included on a 2016 SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) project list.

Construction work began in 2021 but the project was delayed by rising construction costs. County commissioners approved an additional $2.2 million to build the facility out in 2023.

The completed building has two holding cells, a training room, workout room, lockers, community room facilities and offices for command staff.

“It’s finally done,” Birrell told the Courier on Saturday. “And we’re looking to do it in phases until we have a full-fledged precinct.”

No command staff is there presently.

The new facility hosts the county’s DUI task force and a rotating crew of part-time reserve officers is manning the precinct during the day.

Eventual plans are to have a full complement of patrol officers fanning out on 24/7 regular beats, with those beats taken from Precincts 1 and 4.

The two precincts have long provided coverage  in Birrell’s district.

In the meantime residents can do such things as file and pick up copies of reports at the precinct.

 Also, those buying and selling on Craigslist or similar online marketplaces can arrange to meet at the precinct as a safety measure.

As to when command staff and patrol officers will base out of the new digs, Birrell says “We’re not sure how long. It may be a year. We don’t know.”

She indicated that with the department about 60 officers short at the moment, additional recruit classes will have to graduate, train in the field under supervision and then come online. Birrell says she feels Precinct 6 will help make the department and its officers more efficient and local to their communities.