Texas Governor Withholds $5M to Dallas over Police Academy Changes

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is putting a $5 million pledge to Dallas on hold after he said he was not told about significant changes to the city’s plans for a new academy for police recruits.

The Dallas Morning News revealed Friday the basic police academy will likely no longer be at the University of North Texas at Dallas, a major departure from plans promoted by local officials since 2021. Dallas officials have not publicly discussed the revised plans, which The News uncovered after obtaining city documents.

Patrick is now calling for the Texas Legislature to receive an update.

“I have championed this project in the legislature and am not pleased that I was not notified in advance about these significant changes,” Patrick said Tuesday morning in a statement to The News. “Without the Dallas Morning News’ recent reporting, I would not have known of the location change for this project or its skyrocketing price.”

“The legislature needs to receive the completed and updated plan for this project with details on where the academy will be located and how much it will cost,” he added.

UNT Dallas’ campus in southern Dallas had been billed for years as the training site for all future Dallas police hires. But city documents recently obtained by The News show recruits now need a new location with at least 60 additional acres, which has yet to be determined but will cost north of $70 million.

The university is now expected to only house a 7-acre, in-service academy — an advanced training facility for officers already in service, which Dallas plans to construct using another $70 million, the documents show.

The city has so far cobbled at least $70 million together from a $50 million bond package approved by voters, state funds and philanthropic dollars. Those were secured as officials were framing the project as being at UNT Dallas, and the state’s $20 million grant depends on the project being there.

Patrick has been at the forefront of pledging state funds for the academy. He said he placed the $20 million grant in the budget during the last legislative session, and in October, he came to Dallas to kick off the design phase of the academy in a ceremony with top local officials, including former Chief Eddie García and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson.

There, he committed an additional $5 million to the new academy — which is now “on hold until we receive the information and are satisfied this project is actually going to be completed,” Patrick said Tuesday.

“This is a very disappointing turn of events,” he said.

The city of Dallas did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Officials are expected to brief the City Council on academy plans Wednesday.

City documents have chalked up the reasons for the revised plans to changes in leadership, lack of space at UNT Dallas campus and new charter amendments that call for adding 900 officers to the workforce. The city is now conducting a “feasibility study” to determine the best location for the academy, the documents state.

The new academy was promoted as state of the art to improve the Dallas Police Department’s training and boost recruitment and morale in light of steady drops in police staffing numbers. City and police officials repeatedly decried the state of the current basic academy in Red Bird, which is worn down by years of mold and sweat, weathered training rooms, insufficient storage and limited parking spots.

Cara Mendelsohn, who chairs the public safety committee, told The News last week that she held a roundtable with police associations and heard the revised plans “do not meet the needs of police academy staff.”

The original priority was set on that academy, not an in-service facility, she said. The police academy and in-service facilities were anticipated to be complete by 2027. With the changing plans, it’s now unclear when the basic academy will be done.

“ The voter proposition on the bond for the police academy was marketed as a basic police academy for recruiting and expanding our department,” Mendelsohn told The News on Friday. “It was not framed for that $50 million to be used as an in-service academy.”

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