{"id":251933,"date":"2026-04-16T03:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251933\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T03:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:03:13","slug":"dallas-city-council-questions-police-training-academy-project-plans-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251933\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas City Council questions police training academy project plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas City Council members questioned staff over plans to ask voters for a bond to cover the nearly $400 million estimated cost of two new police training facilities<\/a> — and chastised city management for not adequately communicating about plans to build one project on the campus of the Dallas Executive Airport.<\/p>\n

The Dallas City Council was briefed Wednesday on the Law Enforcement Training Center (LETC), planned for the University of North Texas at Dallas campus, and a second facility \u2014 the Public Safety Training Complex (PSTC) \u2014 which would include an emergency vehicle operations course and firearms range, with a proposed site near Dallas Executive Airport.<\/p>\n

But the city faced criticism from Council member Zarin Gracey, who represents the area around the airport and who said he was not notified in advance of plans to build a gun range near neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

“When you don\u2019t communicate and don\u2019t give me an opportunity to communicate with my constituents, it becomes a tough climb,” he said.<\/p>\n

Assistant City Manager Dev Rastogi apologized to Gracey for the miscommunication.<\/p>\n

Other Council Members raised questions about the cost — now nearly $400 million, up from a $140 million estimate in 2021.<\/p>\n

“This is a horrible message to send to the public this isn\u2019t how we should be doing business,” said Council member Adam Bazaldua. “I’m really disappointed in where we are with this project.”<\/p>\n

But on the whole, Council members appeared to support moving forward with building new police facilities — emphasizing the disrepair of the existing complex.<\/p>\n

“If we continue to kick the can down the road, nothing will be completed,” said Council Member Maxie Johnson.<\/p>\n

Council Member Chad West said, “To me it’s a no-brainer and I think we have to find a way to do it.”<\/p>\n

And Dallas Police Association President Sean Pease stressed the urgency, noting officers have been making do in inadequate conditions for decades.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been in this temporary facility for 35 years,” Pease said. “We have no more room there.”<\/p>\n

City staff noted that issuing $250 million in additional bond debt is feasible but “would have an impact on the 2029 bond program,” potentially reducing it by $100 million. Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland noted that borrowing $250 million would result in a total repayment of $387 million when interest is factored in.<\/p>\n

The city’s presentation calls for a groundbreaking at UNT-Dallas in September 2026, which the city described as “ahead of schedule.”<\/p>\n

A June briefing is planned for the council to hear proposed funding strategies.<\/p>\n

If approved, a November bond election would be the fifth time since the 1980s that Dallas voters have been asked to fund a police academy that has yet to be built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas City Council members questioned staff over plans to ask voters for a bond to cover the nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6755,23564,102,105,40734,104,103,95351,95352],"class_list":["post-251933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-council-member","tag-council-members","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-city-council","tag-dallas-executive-airport","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-law-enforcement-training-center","tag-police-facilities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}