News
$9.5 million philanthropic grant will fund Dallas Police Institute in UNT System
DALLAS – Communities Foundation of Texas and the Dallas Police Department announced today the creation of the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Dallas Police Institute, to be developed in collaboration with the University of North Texas and located at the new UNT Dallas Campus.
The groundbreaking institute will prepare and empower leaders in the Dallas Police Department and serve as a national research site for urban law enforcement agencies. The result will be a well educated, better trained police force to respond to the city’s crime challenge while effectively protecting and serving the citizens of Dallas.
UNT System Chancellor Lee Jackson speaks at a press conference at Dallas Police Headquarters where the Communities Foundation of Texas announced the foundation of the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Dallas Police Institute Jan. 8. The institute, which will promote best practices among law enforcement officers and serve as an urban police research laboratory, will be housed on the UNT Dallas Campus once additional facilities have been constructed. -- UNT Dallas Campus Photo/Jonathan Blair
“My hope and my dream is that we will one day look back and see this as the most important day in the history of the Dallas Police Department,” Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said during the press conference where the gift was announced. Kunkle said his department had insisted that every program of the institute be delivered in Dallas.
(Left to Right) Communities Foundation of Texas President and CEO
Brent Christopher
poses with Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle, Mayor Tom Leppert and UNT System Chancellor Lee Jackson
following a press conference announcing the creation of the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Dallas Police Institute
Jan. 8. CFT provided $9.5 million for the institute, soon to be located on the UNT Dallas Campus.
-- UNT Dallas Campus photo/Jonathan Blair
To do so, the Dallas Police Department turned to the University of North Texas, and specifically the new UNT Dallas Campus in the city’s Southern sector. Launched nearly a decade ago, the UNT Dallas Campus will soon become a freestanding university, the only public university within the city limits of Dallas.
“We’re delighted to be able to partner with the Dallas Police Department for this project,” said UNT System Chancellor Lee Jackson. “Working with the department is a unique opportunity to combine academic and street-level insights to develop the new and better practices in police strategy and tactics.”
The Dallas Police Department currently only provides in-house training to the level of sergeant. Once an officer is promoted to the rank of lieutenant, available external training programs to help officers develop leadership skills are scarce. The institute will offer at least one 10-week, mid-level management course, two four-week supervisory courses and one five-day executive seminar annually for police officers. School officials also hope the presence of the institute will raise the number of undergraduate students who are seeking degrees in criminal justice.
The institute will also serve as a research facility by providing a forum for the department to solve complex management problems through discussions between police and university scholars. In a sense, Dallas law enforcement officers will have a new laboratory to evaluate techniques and tactics. The Dallas Police Department will become the first police department nationally to develop a sophisticated system of metrics to monitor trends in performance of police districts and special units, for enhanced accountability to the public.
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert said at the press conference that the relationship between the Dallas Police Department and the UNT Dallas Campus will develop the city’s most important asset in law enforcement, “its people.” Much like the U.S. Army War College, where military officers train to fight, Leppert said the institute at the UNT Dallas Campus will become “known throughout the nation as the ‘War College’ associated with law enforcement.”
The W.W. Caruth, Jr. Dallas Police Institute will begin operations March 1, 2008. Jackson said professors would develop a curriculum and offer courses in the fall 2008 semester. Robert Taylor, chair of the criminal justice department at the University of North Texas, will be relocating his office to the UNT Dallas Campus to serve as the institute’s director. Eric Fritsch, associate professor of criminal justice with UNT, will serve as interim director of training and education.
The RAND Corporation, a highly respected nonprofit research organization, was hired in 2006 to study national “best practices” and identify optimal strategies for investment in the Dallas Police Department. The idea for the police institute came out of extensive interviews RAND conducted with DPD staff at all levels of the department and the review of available training opportunities locally and nationally.
Robert Davis, senior social research analyst with RAND, said the new institute has the potential to change the way the City of Dallas does policing. “It will result in a smarter, better-educated force capable of carrying out the vision of an exceptional chief, and will provide a model that police departments around the country can emulate,” Davis said.
“This has tremendous national significance,” Davis added. “This collaboration between law enforcement and the university is unique.”
When the $15 million gift from the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Foundation at Communities Foundation of Texas was announced in 2005, $5 million dollars was spent almost immediately in two phases to enhance the patrol cars of Dallas police officers with new cages and video recorders. Funds were also spent on computer equipment, cell phones and other communication items. This third phase now creates the Dallas Police Institute.
Of the newly distributed funds, $3.5 million will pay for startup fees for the institute and the program at the UNT Dallas Campus for 3-5 years. The remaining $6 million will be managed by the UNT Foundation as an endowment for perpetual support. In the future, the institute will charge tuition for local and national departments who wish to take advantage of the senior-level training it offers.
Jackson said the UNT Dallas Campus looked forward to building a “sustainable program that will last forever.”
The UNT Dallas Campus, which operates under the authority of the University of North Texas in Denton, currently offers junior-, senior- and graduate-level courses leading to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. Once freestanding, the University of North Texas Dallas will begin recruiting its first freshman class for admission in fall 2009.
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Gregory Tomlin
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