Sheldon Smith walked the portrait-lined halls of the Dallas Police Academy, stopping at the framed faces of officers killed in the line of duty. The sergeant ticked off what he remembers: their class number, a run-in or two, how they died.
Just down the hall at the aging Red Bird facility — a setup that opened in 1990 as a temporary site — is the small classroom where he learned the job 32 years ago. He glanced back at the portraits near another room, where dozens of soon-to-be officers in Class 406 were squeezed in so tightly that shoulders touched.
“From all of these officers, we can learn a lesson. They sacrificed their life,” Smith, the president of the Dallas chapter of the National Black Police Association, said of the portraits before motioning toward the packed classroom. “It has to translate, there, to keep officers alive and to keep citizens safe — this facility is not conducive to that.”
A senior recruit class seen in a classroom at the Dallas Police Academy on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Dallas.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Standing in front of aging academy buildings they described as outdated and inadequate for a big‑city police force on Thursday, leaders of the city’s police associations held a news conference to urge city leaders to follow through on long-discussed plans for a new training facility — even as the City Council debates a possible billion-dollar decision over whether to leave or repair Dallas City Hall.
Political Points
City officials have been working toward replacing the Red Bird facility with a modern training complex at the University of North Texas at Dallas. The current plan centers on a 20-acre law-enforcement training center paired with a separate public-safety complex to accommodate facilities the campus can’t accommodate, such as a driving course and firearms training.
The overall price tag is estimated at about $275 million, and the city is relying in part on private fundraising and other outside dollars to close a funding gap. In a memo to the City Council last week, city officials put the remaining gap at $88.5 million, with $96.5 million committed so far — a mix of bond dollars, state grants and private fundraising.
Sheldon Smith, president of the Dallas chapter of the National Black Police Association, speaks outside of the Dallas Police Academy on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Dallas. Leaders of the Dallas police associations held a news conference to call on the city to focus on funding the new Dallas Police Academy.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
City officials reported the following as secured funding:
2024 Bond Program (Prop. F): $50 millionState grant (2023, 88th Legislature): $20 millionState grant (2025, 89th Legislature): $5 millionCaruth Fund at Communities Foundation of Texas: $10 millionAdditional private fundraising commitments: $11.5 million
Even without full funding in hand, the city is projecting completion in summer 2028, Jenny Nicewander, Dallas’ director of bond and construction management, told the City Council on Wednesday.
The police association leaders framed the new academy as core public‑safety infrastructure, arguing that the city’s recruiting challenges, training needs and response to rising growth all hinge on facilities that can support modern policing demands.
“We’re asking the public to hold your leadership accountable because safety cannot wait,” Juan Hernandez Jr., president of the National Latino Law Enforcement Organization’s Greater Dallas chapter, said during the news conference. “Make sure that the City Council [and] City Hall understand that this is a priority. Dallas can’t wait, and it’s time to build now.”
The floor inside the entryway of the Student Center Building opened on the campus of UNT Dallas Monday, August 26, 2019.
Brian Elledge / Staff Photographer
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They also pitched the new academy as a recruiting asset that could help the city meet voter-approved public safety requirements tied to Proposition U, the November 2024 charter amendment that, among other things, requires the city to maintain at least 4,000 officers. The department is more than 600 officers short.
Jennifer Atherton, president of the Dallas Police Women’s Association, said the current academy’s shortcomings — too few showers or lockers and the lack of a lactation room — have become harder to ignore as the department has drawn more women into its recruit classes.
In September, for example, the department announced that Class 408 was among the largest in its history — 77 trainees, including 20 women.
Police association leaders said they convened the news conference in part because of the new consultant’s report released earlier this month.
The report lays out the potential cost of fixing Dallas City Hall: about $329 million for urgent repairs, and roughly $900 million to $1.1 billion to fully modernize the building, including 20 years of financing.
Sean Pease, president of the Dallas Police Association, said he worries the high-dollar debate over City Hall’s future could crowd out the long-discussed police academy project, which the city has already taken to voters.
Dallas City Hall is seen from the side of Young Street, on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
Those concerns have been echoed by council member Cara Mendelsohn, who represents Far North Dallas and chairs the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. Mendelsohn — a leading skeptic of leaving City Hall — has argued the new police academy is the city’s most important project and should not be pushed aside, slowed down or allowed to balloon in cost.
“This building should’ve happened 30 years ago,” Mendelsohn said during a City Council meeting Wednesday. “It’s been planned for more than 30 years, and instead, we’ve been paying rent every year of $1 million for, frankly, a putrid facility.”
A City Council briefing on the project’s finances is planned in April, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said during the meeting.
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