Dallas police want to hire hundreds more officers to reverse force cuts and continue to reduce crime.
The cost of a new police academy to boost recruitment and training is increasing. 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 located in an old warehouse building near the Dallas Executive Airport off Westmoreland Road.
The Dallas Police Department pays more than $1 million a year to lease them.
“The current storage facility we have is outdated and does not meet the needs of our department,” said Dallas Assistant Police Chief Angela Shaw.
Classroom space is limited. Exercise equipment is shoved into a closet-like area. The space was leased by the city in 1990 with the intention of being the location of a temporary academy.
At least two other Dallas police academy plans have fallen through in the past 34 years.
“It's an embarrassment to our academy right now. It's not what this city and this department stands for. The training that goes on in the academy is amazing. The men and women who graduate from the academy are amazing. But we… We need better products,” said Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia.
Other Dallas leaders who visited the site agreed with Garcia's sentiments.
“I toured this facility in 2017 and was simply appalled by its condition. And I will return in 2021 as a new council member and aim to be in the same condition. We are a new Dallas Police Department. We have to build schools,” said City Councilman Gay Donnell Willis.
Renderings show a replacement facility planned for the University of North Texas Dallas campus near I-20. The large open space includes room for future on-campus housing recruitment.
UNT Dallas' Caruth Police Institute will partner with the Dallas Police Department to become a regional police training center.
“To offset this cost, we need to look for other nearby suburbs to get training right here in the city of Dallas,” said City Councilman Jesse Moreno.
Members of the Dallas City Council Public Safety Committee were informed Monday that the estimated cost had increased to $152 million from an original estimate of $140 million.
Police from Texas secured a $20 million commitment for a new academy. If approved by Dallas voters, an additional $50 million would come from a public improvement bond referendum scheduled for 2024.
More than half of the cost will come from private donations, which are being solicited by former Dallas City Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates.
“We've had some great conversations with some potential major donors,” Gates said.
Four years ago, Dallas leaders toured Fort Worth's much larger police academy housed in a former federal warehouse on Felix Street. There is ample classroom space here, an indoor city police training village to simulate crime fighting, and an outdoor driver training course right next to it too.
“That's good. Very good. We should be with them,” Dallas Chief Garcia said.
The existing Dallas Academy includes outdoor driver training space and several smaller buildings used for urban training. However, Dallas Police announced Monday that the UNT Dallas location will not include driver or urban training facilities.
One or more locations for these programs are still being sought.
“There's a lot of things that need to be ironed out, but again, our partners at UNT Dallas are great, so we really hope to get this across the finish line. Obviously, it's a lot of work. There's a lot of weight. But there's a lot of support for it. So I'm imagining it becoming a reality and I'm very excited,” Garcia said.
The plan calls for the city of Dallas to construct a building on UNT's Dallas campus and lease it back from the university for $1 a year for 40 years with renewal options.
Chief Shaw said the money currently being spent to lease the inferior building will cover the maintenance costs of the new building and will be less expensive than the lease cost if UNT Dallas built the building. Ta.
However, it remains difficult to raise all the construction funds.
The Dallas Police Department has made significant progress in the fight against violent crime, announcing an 11.68% reduction in cases Monday through Oct. 31 of this year.cent In addition to the decrease from the previous year, compared to the same period last year.
Garcia said the biggest challenge to continuing this trend is staffing.
“One thing we need? To grow this department in the future, we need more people,” Garcia said.
The goal is to have the new police academy open by 2027, before the current building's lease expires.
