Dallas City Council receives memo clarifying who can use future police training complex
Dallas City Council received word Friday that basic training for new police recruits will be held at the new police training complex at the University of North Texas at Dallas.
The City of Dallas plans to break ground on a new police training complex at UNT Dallas in the summer of 2026, but confusion arose at Wednesday's city council meeting on who would get to use the facility.
On Friday, the largest Dallas Police Academy of recruits since 2022 graduated. CBS News Texas followed them for the 10-month academy at the training facility in Red Bird. It opened as a temporary training center in 1990, and more than three decades later, it's still being used to train cadets.
Dallas Police Assistant Chief Catrina Shead addressed the aging building in a DPD YouTube video.
"There's not much difference in this building since when I joined 28 years ago. It is exactly the same, and we can stand a bit of improvement," Shead said.
Voters approved 2024 bond funds for a new $140 million state-of-the-art training facility at UNT Dallas.
"There were some misperceptions on what kind of training would take place at this location, and so I'll clear that up here shortly. This is mostly for the officers that are active officers within the police department," Dallas Police Assistant Chief Israel Herrera said at Wednesday's city council meeting.
Herrera's comment left some city council members confused.
"The basic academy will not be on the UNT campus. We're going to retain the leased space, substandard training academy, to continue to train recruits. Is that what I'm hearing?" District 14 Dallas City Councilman Paul Ridley said.
"Yes, sir," Herrera replied.
Dallas City Council received a memo Friday from the Chief of Public Safety after a contentious meeting Wednesday, which indicated new recruits will have basic training at UNT Dallas.
The memo also states the project team will look at a place for training that won't work at UNT Dallas. That includes an outdoor shooting range, a simulated tactical village, and an emergency vehicle operations course.
The memo indicates leaders will look at a modified training plan for UNT Dallas over the next three weeks and plan to meet again with the city council in April.
