City leaders and Dallas police officials broke ground Thursday morning on a long-awaited police training center that has been decades in the making. The new facility is planned to go up on open land next to the University of North Texas at Dallas off Camp Wisdom Road. Supporters say the proje ct will modernize officer training and replace aging facilities that have been in use for nearly 40 years. The ceremonial groundbreaking marks the first visible step toward construction of the 20-acre campus in southern Dallas designed to train future recruits and provide continuing education for current officers. The project has been discussed for years and comes as police leaders continue to push for upgraded facilities, arguing the department’s current training academy has fallen far behind those of other major cities. “When I was doing research about coming to the Dallas Police Department, I noticed back in May of 1987 it was in the paper about the Dallas Police Department getting a new academy,” Dallas Police chief Daniel Comeaux said in a recent interview with NBC 5. “That’s when I graduated high school, actually. And we still don’t have a new academy.” The department’s current training academy operates out of a warehouse that the city leased as a temporary facility in 1990. More than three decades later, officers are still training there. “When I went to the firing range, I could not believe we were at the firing range. The building’s falling down, and this is where an elite police department is training right now. I was shocked that Dallas had facilities that bad,” Comeaux said. The chief said aging facilities can make it more difficult to attract recruits and provide officers with the best possible training. “We’re doing really good in recruiting right now, but at some point we’re going to hit a wall when people see the facilities,” he said. “It’s kind of a downer.” The new Dallas Police Department Law Enforcement Training Center is expected to include a basic academy, in-service training academy, physical training pavilion and criminal justice center. City officials say the facility will help position Dallas as a leader in law enforcement training while strengthening partnerships between the city, the police department, and UNT Dallas. But despite Thursday’s milestone, significant funding challenges remain. The training center is expected to cost about $227 million. Dallas voters approved $50 million in bond funding for the project in 2024, but city leaders say additional funding will be needed to complete construction. “Well, it’s hard to build something in 2026 at $50 million that’s gonna be state of the art,” said Comeaux, who said he hopes voters don’t turn down the measure. “I’d be extremely disappointed, especially when it comes to the police department for the facilities. I mean, this is something that’s needed.” As part of a proposed $443 million public safety bond package on the November ballot, city officials are asking voters to help fund a variety of public safety projects, including the police training center. The chief has also been outspoken about the condition of the department’s existing training infrastructure, including its firing range. “When I went to the firing range, I could not believe we were at the firing range,” Comeaux said. “The building’s falling down, and this is where an elite police department is training right now. I was shocked that Dallas had facilities that bad.” The proposed November bond package would also fund other public safety projects, including a separate Public Safety Training Complex at Dallas Executive Airport, a consolidated police property room and evidence-vehicle storage facility, a crime lab, relocation of 911 and emergency operations from City Hall, and the replacement of Fire Station No. 4. “The Emergency Operating Center, that’s a bad facility. It’s in a basement right now. It’s bad. You actually have rodents that are running through the office while 911 operators are working. There are water leaks down there. And I think the new plan is we can put them closer to headquarters. We can have us close together in case there’s a disaster. Various things that would just make us more efficient as a city and a department,” Comeaux said. In addition to public funding, the city is exploring private investment opportunities for the training center. Dallas officials recently began marketing naming-rights opportunities for portions of the academy, including the physical training pavilion and other training facilities. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less