For Manuel Calloway, the Singing Hills neighborhood has been home for the better part of 30 years.

“We’ve got the library, the gym, police station is in the neighborhood, so that helps deter crime as well,” Calloway said.

It’s why he’s keeping close watch on what’s planned just across Camp Wisdom Road in southern Dallas, on the campus of The University of North Texas at Dallas.

“It will get the college a lot of exposure, which means it will get this area a lot of exposure,” Calloway said.

He’s talking about what’s now a plan that the city of Dallas has committed to turn into the next major project for the Dallas Police Department.

The proposed Law Enforcement Training Center at UNT-Dallas is designed as a state-of-the-art, new police academy, both for new recruits and continuing education for commissioned police officers.

At a briefing on Monday, city staff and DPD presented updated schematics and renderings for what the academy may look like.

The updated plan presented to the city council’s Public Safety Committee reveals ample space and layout, allowing DPD to have larger recruiting classes to help meet voter-mandated hiring goals.

According to city documents, $96.5 million of the proposed $185 million project has been committed.

Council members on Monday expressed concern about the remaining $88.5 million that so far is unfunded.

Council member Cara Mendelsohn told city staff $50 million for the project from the 2024 bond election was likely not asking enough.

“What we’ve asked of our fundraisers is a huge task,” Mendelsohn said. “It’s basically asking them to raise double what we put in as bond.”

Right now, those working to raise funds for the project say there’s enough to break ground in November 2026, after final design documents are complete next August.

Calloway adds that, living closest to the project, he hopes Singing Hills residents realize the benefits, too.

“With more people coming out of the academy, it forces them to have to drive through here on their way home – and different things like that – so I’m for it.”

His neighbor, a few doors down, Camelia Maxwell, echoed a similar sentiment.

“If it helps to get more police on the streets, so that the response time is a lot quicker, that would be great,” Maxwell said.