A senior recruit class seen in a classroom at the Dallas Police Academy on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Dallas.
Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer
Most Dallas City Council members say they’re committed to building a new, long-promised police academy for the city’s officers.
But just as many still have questions about how to pay for it.
Article continues below this ad
Those sentiments shaped the council’s Wednesday briefing. The broader project, once billed as a single campus, now includes the main academy at the University of North Texas at Dallas and a separate public safety complex with other training facilities.
Both projects face multimillion-dollar funding gaps. For the academy at UNT Dallas, city leaders are counting on private donations and possibly another bond election in November to help close the more than $80 million shortfall. Bond funding could also come into play for the separate public safety complex, which city documents show needs $148 million.
Another bond election for the academy, if approved, would be the second time voters have been asked to help pay for the project, following approval of a $1.25 billion bond package in 2024 that included $50 million for it.
Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.
Add Preferred Source
It could also sharpen questions about the city’s capital priorities as officials weigh other costly long-term needs, including the fate of the I. M. Pei-designed City Hall and whether the seat of the city government should be moved.
Article continues below this ad
Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said the meeting was intended to allow council members to offer feedback, including on the possibility of another bond election.
“We will definitely come back and show you if there’s any other ways to look at that,” Tolbert told the council members during the briefing, “but we will need decisions before we go into the summer so we know where we’re headed, not only with the budget, but as it relates to potentially having additional funding support through a bond later in the year.”
Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert listens to discussion regarding the condition of city hall during a Dallas City Council Committee on Finance special called meeting at Dallas City Hall, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026.
Elías Valverde II/Staff Photographer
Jack Ireland, the city’s chief financial officer, said another bond election could delay other projects in the 2024 bond package. That package, which voters passed with overwhelming support, included hundreds of millions in funding for streets and transportation work, as well as parks and recreation.
Article continues below this ad
The city’s top public safety officials also used the briefing to highlight other needs they said require attention, including the police department’s Baylor Street property building, its auto pound in West Dallas and the possible relocation of its 911 call center operations from City Hall.
Tolbert said they would convene again in June for another briefing on options. The city is aiming to break ground on the academy in September and complete it in 2028.
Related: Amid debate over City Hall’s fate, police unions urge focus on new UNT Dallas academy
Debate around funds
The meeting exposed differing views among council members, but the majority shared a sense of urgency about building a new police academy.
Article continues below this ad
The project would replace the department’s aging training facilities in Red Bird, where the current academy opened in 1990 as a temporary site but still serves as the city’s main police training center.
Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux, who is nearing one year on the job, said he was “embarrassed” by the condition of the department’s outdoor shooting range when he reported there on his first day to complete his required firearms qualification.
“I couldn’t believe that the city of Dallas had a firing range that looked the way it looked,” he told council members.
Police recruits train at the Dallas Police Academy on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Dallas.
Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer
During the briefing, council members also quizzed staff on shifting cost estimates, whether another bond election would be needed and how it could affect the city’s longer-term finances, and how and where the separate public safety complex could be built.
Article continues below this ad
Lynn McBee, the city’s workforce czar and one of the UNT Dallas academy’s fundraisers, said the fundraising effort led by her and former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins is focused on the academy, not the separate public safety complex.
Council member Cara Mendelsohn, who chairs the city’s Public Safety Committee, has said the city did not ask voters for enough when it set aside $50 million for the academy in the 2024 bond election. On Wednesday, she argued in favor of another bond proposal, saying she would be “happy to have it” on the ballot in November.
“The people in Dallas want this police academy built,” she said. “They want it built right away.”
Council member Adam Bazaldua, a critic of the city’s plans with UNT Dallas, has said he is opposed to asking voters for more money after they already approved funding for the project in 2024. He argued the broader project was “filled with a lot of ‘wish list’ and not prioritizing need.”
Article continues below this ad
Related: Residents question public art for Dallas’ new police training academy
The public safety training complex, which would include an emergency vehicle operations course, an outdoor tactical village and a gun range, is estimated to cost $169 million, according to the documents.
A few council members asked how the city would move forward if it chose not to pursue another bond election or if a proposal failed at the ballot box.
McBee said in an interview that “something can be built” with the original $150 million goal the city set. But whether it will have all the “state of the art” features and be “built for the future” depends on the city closing the funding gap.
Article continues below this ad
The city says it has secured $96.5 million in grants and private funding so far, with more expected. McBee said other strategies to close the funding gap, including a possible bond election, could help clarify whether the city needs to scale down or has enough dollars to better equip the campus.
Aerial view of Dallas City Hall (right) and the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in Dallas
Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer
Communication at issue
Some council members raised concerns about how changes to the project had been communicated since it began.
Article continues below this ad
Council member Zarin Gracey said the city’s tentative plan for the public safety complex was not shared with him until last week, even though the city’s favored site — the northeast corner of the Dallas Executive Airport — is located in his southern Dallas district and would include a gun range a “stone’s throw” from his home.
Gracey called the lack of communication “disrespect” and said it made it harder for him to answer constituents’ questions about a project that could otherwise benefit District 3.
“I think we all support DPD,” he said during the meeting, “and we want to be able to give them the things that they need, but this failure to communicate has got to stop.”
There have been other communication lapses about the project. City staff did not brief the full City Council on the shift away from the initial single-site plan.
Article continues below this ad
In February 2025, The Dallas Morning News reported that officials had quietly changed course to have a separate site outside of the UNT Dallas campus, prompting fresh questions from state and local officials about the academy’s future.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy.
Tolbert, the city manager, returned later in the meeting to Gracey’s comments.
“Oftentimes, overcommunicating is the best answer,” she said, “and we’ll definitely do better in making sure that that is happening.”
Article continues below this ad
Staff writer Devyani Chhetri contributed to this article.