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UNT Dallas gets $10 million for new law enforcement training center

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UNT Dallas gets  million for new law enforcement training center


The University of North Texas at Dallas will receive $10 million for its new law enforcement training center, a yearslong construction project aimed at improving training facilities for police.

The Communities Foundation of Texas’ grant marks the largest philanthropic gift in the university’s history and helps pave the way for a new Dallas police academy by 2027, officials announced at a news conference Thursday. CFT is also the fiscal sponsor of The Dallas Morning News’ community-funded endeavors.

The new academy is meant to improve the Dallas Police Department’s training experience and boost recruitment and morale, particularly in light of steady drops in police staffing numbers in recent years. City officials have repeatedly decried the worn-down state of the current academy, which houses about 300 police recruits.

“This new facility will let our officers know that they are seen, that they are valued and that they are appreciated for their noble sacrifice and service,” Dallas police Chief Eddie García said.

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Dallas police Chief Eddie García speaks during a ceremony to announce a donation for a law enforcement training center at the University of North Texas at Dallas, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, in Dallas. The Communities Foundation of Texas donated $10 million dollars to UNT Dallas for the training center.(Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer)

García said the new academy represents an investment “into the heart and soul” of the department. The current academy is housed in a rented industrial space in the Red Bird neighborhood and has been used by the department since 1990, although it was originally only intended to be temporary, García said.

The chief said officers’ needs have tripled the last three decades and the academy doesn’t have enough room for showers and bathrooms for recruits. In the City Council’s public safety meetings, elected officials have criticized the academy’s mold and odor from decades of sweat and lack of locker space.

“It is embarrassing and it is not indicative of who we are,” García said. “They deserve better. Our city deserves better.”

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The new center is set to be located next to a park on 5 acres of UNT Dallas’ campus, officials said. It will feature more communal spaces and classrooms, expanded gym facilities, outdoor running paths and virtual-reality training technology. The facility will also serve as a regional training center for other police departments in the area.

The project was projected to cost about $150 million, police officials previously said.

The state legislature committed $20 million last year, and the city of Dallas hopes to allocate an additional $50 million through this year’s bond package, which the city council will vote on next week. If approved, residents will vote on it in May. The city hoped to obtain the rest through private funds and charitable grants.

Dallas mayor Eric Johnson speaks during a ceremony to announce a donation for a law...
Dallas mayor Eric Johnson speaks during a ceremony to announce a donation for a law enforcement training center at the University of North Texas at Dallas, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, in Dallas. The Communities Foundation of Texas donated $10 million dollars to UNT Dallas for the training center.(Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer)

Bob Mong, president of UNT Dallas, said the initiative reflects a commitment to attract more local youth and adults to careers in law enforcement. He said he saw the state of the academy about five years ago, which “was enough to shock me and enough to stir my own determination to get this thing pulled together.”

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the project has been “years in the making” and can set a new standard for law enforcement training nationwide as well as “turn the tide” in recruiting.

How can Dallas police replenish their ranks when fewer people want to be cops?

Dallas police have struggled to replenish ranks amid high attrition rates, even with the introduction of new incentives and programs in recent years to retain and recruit officers. The department has about 3,000 officers, down from the 3,500 to 3,600 it had in 2014 before hundreds left during a pension crisis in 2016-17.

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Wayne White, CFT’s president and CEO, said their grant builds upon a first-of-its-kind partnership between the philanthropic organization, academia and law enforcement.

“Dallas is second to none when it comes to generosity and public-private collaboration,” he said.



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Dallas Weather: Thunderstorms in the forecast for Friday & Mother’s Day

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Dallas Weather: Thunderstorms in the forecast for Friday & Mother’s Day


Thunderstorms will roll through parts of North Texas on Friday. Thankfully, none should be severe. Mother’s Day could be a different story.

Friday Forecast

According to FOX 4 Weather Meteorologist Berkeley Taylor, a cluster of thunderstorms will work their way east across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex on Friday morning.

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Everything is well below severe limits, just with lots of lightning! 

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will move in and out through the day on Friday. Coverage is about 20%.

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An isolated strong storm or two can’t be ruled out, but the overall threat is low. 

Temperatures will be in the 50s and 60s for the morning, before climbing into the 80s by the afternoon. 

Weekend Forecast

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Saturday will look similar, with even lower coverage expected. 

Sunday presents the best chance to find rain and storms – about 50% as a cold front moves through North Texas. 

North Texas is under a Level 2 out of 5 risk for severe weather. The biggest concerns will be with wind and hail. 

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Timing-wise, the front looks to move through in the afternoon/evening. 

7-Day Forecast

Once the front is south of North Texas on Mother’s Day, the rain should come to an end, and it will stay dry into next week.

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Temperatures will start to warm into the upper 80s and low 90s by midweek next week.

The Source: The information in this story is from the FOX 4 Weather team and National Weather Service.

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Dallas deck park set to reconnect Oak Cliff after decades of division

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Dallas deck park set to reconnect Oak Cliff after decades of division


Dallas is just days away from opening the new Harold Simmons Bridge Park, a deck park built over I‑35E near the Dallas Zoo. The project, more than 35 years in the making, is designed to reconnect the long‑divided Oak Cliff community. Instead of a traditional ribbon‑cutting, leaders held a symbolic event highlighting unity and the park’s role in bringing neighborhoods back together.



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Cowboys’ Stephen Jones says what NFL won’t admit about the Micah Parsons trade

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Cowboys’ Stephen Jones says what NFL won’t admit about the Micah Parsons trade


It hasn’t even been a year since the blockbuster Micah Parsons trade, but the Dallas Cowboys have officially and completely moved on.

Although in many ways, the 2025 season feels like it was wasted with how good the Cowboys’ offense was, the decision to trade Parsons to the Green Bay Packers was pretty simple in principle: Dallas did not believe one great player was worth four or five good players. And that is a sentiment that has been repeated to an almost political degree from the Cowboys’ brain trust.

Cowboys EVP and CEO Stephen Jones recently reiterated the Dallas’ internal pleasure over how the Parsons trade has played out, and he essentially said what everyone in the NFL refuses to say: The Cowboys might have actually made the right call.

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Stephen Jones likes how Dallas Cowboys have reloaded the defense after Micah Parsons trade

Here’s what Jones had to say (via NFL.com) regarding his thoughts on the trade now that the pieces are pretty much all in place:

“We feel really good about it. Obviously, much respect for Micah and what he stands for and how he plays and the caliber of player he is, but at the same time we feel good about what we’ve added via that trade.

You look at a guy like Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark, they’re alpha players who not only are great players on the field, but they’re leaders in the meeting room. How they go about their business in the offseason, [they] just bring great leadership to this team. As we mentioned, we add a guy like Caleb Downs, who is obviously the same type of character…

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I just feel very optimistic that we have the right pieces in place to go out there. Ultimately, the decision we made was that one player was not worth four or five good ones.”

There is really a lot going on with what Jones says right here that will perk up a lot of ears and eyebrows.

Of course, the general sentiment seems to be that the Cowboys are pleased with the way they’ve utilized the assets they got in that trade from the Packers. The acquisition of defensive lineman Quinnen Williams gives Dallas an absolute stud in the middle, but having Kenny Clark next to him is a really underrated piece as well.

The trade back in the first round of this year’s draft with Green Bay’s selection landed the Cowboys Malachi Lawrence, Devin Moore, and LT Overton. There’s still the matter of which pick will go to the Jets next year from the Williams trade, but it will be whichever of Dallas’ and Green Bay’s pick is higher.

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You can also tell that the personal makeup of the players they’ve added was important for Dallas in this process, and while Jones stops short of taking a dig at Parsons in that regard, you can hear what he’s saying pretty loud and clear when he talks about guys being “alpha” players on the field as well as leaders in the meeting room. Message sent.

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The thing nobody in the NFL really wants to admit is that the Cowboys did the right thing by trading Parsons when and how they did. And while you can debate whether they truly got great value, it’s hard to argue with the idea that one player is worth four or five, especially when that one player would be taking up the same slice of the pie as most quarterbacks around the NFL.

It’s not that you can’t make it work, but in Dallas’ context, they felt like that investment in Parsons was a signal that they were “one player away”, and it’s hard to argue with their self-awareness that they simply weren’t in that position a year ago.

Although the cost was moving on from a true superstar off the edge like Micah Parsons, it’s a trade that has helped Dallas reload a huge portion of their starting defense, including adding three quality players on the defensive front, maybe more.

Most people hated the Parsons trade just on principle. How can you trade a defensive superstar still with his prime years ahead of him? Doesn’t it send a bad message to other players who earn big-money contracts? Ultimately, the Cowboys drew a proverbial line in the sand, and that’s part of the business of the NFL.

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They still have to hope that all of the new additions work out, but on paper, it’s hard to argue with what the Cowboys were able to assemble rather quickly because of this trade.

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