Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Dallas Police Department opens new building in South Dallas

By Michael Davis of Dallas Progress

Last night, city and community leaders officially opened the new building for the South Central Division of the Dallas Police Department. This is the first new DPD division building for the south since 1991, when the southeast division moved to Jim Miller & 175.

Back in the mid-1990s, Dwaine Caraway took Vernon "Hoople" Jordan out to that area, which is just east of Singing Hills. Mr. Jordan bought the land, and under the council leadership of former councilman James Fantroy and others sprouted the Village of Runyon Springs housing development, UNT-Dallas, and now the DPD Station. It was great to see so many community leaders from Southern Dallas. Thanks to Councilmen Neumann, Kadane, and Natinsky for making the trip south to join us in this great occasion.

I grabbed a few minutes with Chief Kunkle before things started, as well as other members of DPD. It's always great to get a history lesson - I never knew that the raggedy little building across from Turner Courts was the old southeast division HQ.

I also got to talk to Deputy Chiefs Scott, Golbeck, and Harvey. To me, Chief Sherryl Scott is perfect for this new position of leading the South Central Division. She is focused, calm, and reassuring. We have a lot of faith in her, and you can tell that this is the beginning of a great partnership with the community.

My favorite moment of the night was talking to former Councilman James Fantroy. The best thing was that we got to talk in the room that he fought to get, the community room. South Central has a community room that is open to the public and can be reserved for neighborhood meetings, functions, and events. People know that he fought hard to get that station in place, and it was great to see him walk (not roll) into the building.

This building is the first DPD Station that is LEED Certified. We all took tours and were impressed by the design of the building. It was hard to picture when we were at the groundbreaking last August. Most important, it will continue the redistribution of officers in that area and ease the load on the Southwest and Southeast Police divisions.

Thank you to Scott Goldstein of the Dallas Morning News, Gary Reaves of Channel 8, JD Miles of Channel 11, and others for covering this event. Once again, "that person" at Channel 8 tries to get a gotcha story for no good reason. On a day of great joy in the community, she decides to run around our community's event and ask people stupid questions about DPD's new hiring policy (which is the SAME as the FBI's by the way). She wanted her ink, and as always I guess she got it. Channel 8's in the community more that any other station, but did they really need to lead off the news on a great day like this? Couldn't it have waited one more day? We do thank them for sending Gary Reaves to balance it out.

When we pulled off, my wife and I noticed how the building literally glowed. What a fitting sight!

For years, many community leaders have fought to increase police presence in that area. Now they'll get it. The station is located on Camp Wisdom just east of Lancaster Road (map).

Pegasus News content partner - Dallas Progress

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