The Brief
Dallas broke ground on a new state-of-the-art police training campus at UNT Dallas to replace a temporary facility used since 1990.
City leaders promise the project will be on time and on budget even though it still requires tens of millions of dollars in public and private funds.
Funding heavily relies on a $443 million bond on the November ballot, though police representatives and council members voice concerns over the proposal’s vague language.
DALLAS – The city of Dallas finally broke ground on a new Dallas Police Law Enforcement Training Center on the campus of UNT Dallas.
And while the city manager promised it would be on time and on budget, there are still tens of millions of dollars needed to make it all happen.
Dallas Police Training Facility
What’s new
On Thursday, the ceremonial groundbreaking made good on a promise made to Dallas police back in 1990, when the city created a temporary Dallas Police Academy in an industrial strip center in southern Dallas.
The new facility will be a state-of-the-art, 20-acre campus at UNT Dallas.
What they’re saying
One city leader used the groundbreaking ceremony as an opportunity to urge voters to approve the $443 million bond going to voters in November.
“This November, Dallas voters will decide on a public safety bond that give our city the opportunity to invest once more in the people and resources Dallas needs to be safe.,” said former Dallas City Councilman Tennell Atkins.
The other side
But the facility still needs millions in private and public funds.
“We’ve got to have clarity on the language. I cannot support asking voters to approve something if two years down the road it never gets funded,” said Dallas Police Association President Sean Pease.
Pease is concerned about the language of the proposition going to voters.
Dallas City Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn said the city could treat the money like a blank check.
What’s next
Dallas voters will be asked to vote on the $443 bond package in November. This is the fifth time the city has asked voters to pay for an academy.
If voters reject the bond again, Mendelsohn believes the council will work on a new bond package that is focused solely on the academy for voters to vote on in May.
The Source
The information in this story comes from a broadcast report from FOX 4’s Lori Brown and comments made by city leaders during Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony.