DALLAS, TX - City council members are considering a proposal to send a set of three bonds totaling nearly a billion dollars to voters this coming November, and the Dallas police chief wants residents to know the public safety portion of the bonds is critical to the city.
Nearly half of the $960 million proposal, $433 million, would be used for public safety, including building a new police training academy, CBS19 reported. The city wants to build a new academy on the campus of the University of North Texas at Dallas, but the college will not allow for the construction of a gun range or vehicle training track, and replacing the current facility has become a complicated affair.
The plan now is to build two separate facilities: the primary campus at UNT-Dallas, with the gun range and vehicle track at Dallas Executive Airport. The plan is over-budget and behind schedule, which is why council may need to put the bond package before voters.
Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux explained why a new academy and gun range are so important for public safety. "You want the very best officers to be out there protecting and serving you. So, you want the officers to get top-notch training, and facilities play a part in that,” Comeaux explained. “We don’t want to be a police department that only takes those who pass. We want to have a line outside the door of people wanting to be Dallas police officers, and this plays a part in it."
He said that Dallas is one of the few major cities currently trending in the right direction in officer recruitment. He also says that retention is the best it's been in years, but without new facilities, he argues recruiting will eventually hit a wall because terrible facilities indicate a council or community isn't behind the department.
Dallas voters have approved money for a new police training facility on four previous bonds, including $50 million in 1985, 2003, 2006, and most recently in 2024. City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert told council members recently that she could find no explanation for the $50 million figure, which wasn't nearly enough to cover the cost of a new facility, which is why council is now considering asking voters for the green light to borrow additional funds.
Comeaux said he's receiving calls from other departments and cities about their model for a new training facility on a college campus, which he says would be a first and could create a pipeline for officers.
"It would be nice to have it all together, but I will take this plan all day, every day for us to build the bridge between those at the university. And not only that, to have that relationship with the university, to give the academia side of how we can be better as a department. I’m excited about that part,” Comeaux said.
In addition to the millions more for public safety, city staff also recommended that council members to approve borrowing $500 million to invest in the city's police and fire pension fund in the form of pension obligation bonds. This would save an estimated $341 million commitment from the general fund.
Chief Comeaux says new recruits are worried about pensions. But beyond that, he argues that it's time for retired officers to receive cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) in their pensions.
Council members were split over sending the bond proposal to voters, with some saying the cost of issuing more debt and others urging their colleagues to uphold their commitments to build a new police academy. The council is set to vote on the bond measure during its August 12 meeting. If they approve it, voters will see it on their November ballot.
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