Dallas City Council got a chance to see the latest plans for the new Dallas Police Academy. Police say a much better building would help hire and train the additional officers that Dallas really needs. NBC 5’s Ken Kalthoff reports the old academy is very outdated, but the new academy doesn’t yet rival Fort Worth’s training facility.
Dallas Police want to hire hundreds more officers to reverse a shrinking police force and continue reducing crime.
The cost of a new police academy intended to help boost hiring and training is growing. And the plan still lacks some features the Fort Worth Police Academy already has.
The current Dallas Police Academy and in-service training facility is housed in old warehouse buildings near Dallas Executive Airport off Westmoreland Road.
Dallas Police pay more than $1 million a year to lease them.
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“The current warehouse facility that we have is outdated and does not meet the needs of our department,” Assistant Dallas Police Chief Angela Shaw said.
Classroom space is limited. Exercise equipment is squeezed into what seems like a closet. The space was rented by the city in 1990 for what was intended to be a temporary academy location.
Over the last 34 years at least two other Dallas Police Academy plans fell through.
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“Our academy, as it is now, is embarrassing. It’s not what this city and this department stands for. It’s amazing the training that goes on at the academy. It’s amazing the men and women that graduate from the academy. But we need a better product,” Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said.
Other Dallas leaders who visited the place agreed with Garcia.
“In 2017 I toured this facility and I was just appalled by the state. And then in 2021 to come back as a new council member to see it in the same state. We have to build a new Dallas Police Academy,” Council Member Gay Donnell Willis said.
Renderings show the planned replacement on the University of North Texas at Dallas campus near I-20. A big tract of vacant land includes room for recruiting housing on campus in the future.
The Caruth Police Institute at UNT Dallas would partner with the Dallas Police Department to make it a regional police training center.
“We need to seek other nearby suburbs to try to get them to do their training here in the City of Dallas to help offset this cost,” Council Member Jesse Moreno said.
Members of the Dallas City Council Public Safety Committee were told Monday that the estimated cost has risen to $152 million from an earlier estimate of $140 million.
From the State of Texas, police have secured a commitment of $20 million for the new academy. Another $50 million would come from a planned 2024 public improvement bond referendum if Dallas voters approve.
That leaves more than half of the cost to be raised from private donations, which former Dallas City Council Member Jennifer Staubach Gates is soliciting.
“We have had great meetings with some potentially large donors,” Gates said.
Four years ago Dallas leaders toured Fort Worth’s really large police academy housed in a former federal government warehouse on Felix Street. It has plenty of classroom space, an indoor urban police training village to simulate crime-fighting challenges and an outdoor driver training course right beside it.
“It is nice. It’s absolutely nice. We should be right there with them,” Dallas Chief Garcia said.
The existing Dallas Academy has outdoor driver training space and some small buildings used for urban training. But Dallas Police said Monday that the UNT Dallas location will not include driver or urban training facilities.
One or more locations for those programs are still being sought.
“There’s lots of things that need to get worked out, but again our partners at UNT Dallas are fantastic and we’re really hoping to get this across the goal line. Obviously, it’s a lot of work. It’s a heavy lift. But, there’s a lot of support for it. So I envision it coming to fruition and we’re really excited,” Garcia said.
The plan calls for the City of Dallas to build the structure at the UNT Dallas campus and lease it back from the university for $1 a year for 40 years with options to renew.
Assistant Chief Shaw said the money being spent now to lease an inferior building would cover upkeep on the new one and be less than the cost of a lease if UNT Dallas built the structure.
But finding all that construction money is still a challenge.
Dallas police have achieved strong results fighting violent crime with an 11.68% reduction posted Monday for this year through October 31st compared with the same period last year on top of the reduction the year before.
Garcia said staffing is the largest challenge for continuing the trend.
“The one thing we need? We need more staffing to grow the department in the future,” Garcia said.
The goal is to have the new police academy open by 2027 before the lease runs out on the current building.
