Police Training Academy to open this November at Del Mar College Oso Creek campus

In a few months, the much-awaited Police Training Academy will open on the Del Mar College Oso Creek campus, providing a modern space for police cadets to train to become police officers.

The 32,000-square-foot, two-story building, located on nine acres of Del Mar’s Southside campus at the corner of Yorktown Boulevard and Rodd Field Road, includes many state-of-the art features, among which are two large classrooms, an auditorium teaching space, crime scene training, a driving simulator, an armory, a weight exercise room, locker rooms and showers, an outdoor running track, a cadet break room and administrative offices for leadership and officers, along with secure parking.

The architectural team of internationally recognized firm Gensler and local firm Turner Ramirez Architects designed the new campus, with Fulton Coaston General Contractors jointly serving as the project contractor.

The building is mostly complete, with staff finishing installation of audio-visual tools in the training rooms, IT security cameras and awaiting arrival of furniture and additional equipment that will be placed in September, October and November.

City Manager Peter Zanoni said the academy is the first in the city’s history, offering cadets a built-to-suit training environment where they can prepare to become officers on an educational campus. He called the $26-million project a tremendous financial win for the community that will help the police department continue to grow and the city to attract a qualified workforce.

“Most of our cadets are very young—18, 19—and some have begun some type of formal education, while a lot of them have not,” he said. “This provides them a setting that will encourage them to take credits either at Del Mar or some other university.

“As they become a police officer over the years, they can not only become that, but also get an undergraduate and maybe a graduate degree,” he said. “It inspires them being on the campus to continue learning beyond what’s needed to be a police officer.”

The Corpus Christi Police Department has grown from 446 to 501 police officer positions over the last five years, according to data presented by CCPD Chief Mike Markle to the City Council on July 30 for the 2024-2025 proposed operating budget.

Between 25 and 35 cadets train through the Police Training Academy each year. Up until now, however, the academy has been housed in a cinderblock structure built in 1981 at 4510 Corona Drive on a former gun range, providing only two rooms to hold classes.

“With added positions on the police department, this gives us more capacity to train more officers,” said Anthony Sanders, CCPD vice deputy chief of narcotics, who has been with the city's police department for 23 years. “With this academy, we’ll able to train 50 cadets at a time.”

Zanoni explained that the building’s unique concept, which combines technology and fitness features along with traditional offices under one roof, is the result of conversations with the police department and leadership who are in charge of training, as well as the architect.

“It’s a unique building in that you don’t see buildings like this—it’s not an office building, though it has some offices, along with a weight room and tactical room where physical fitness and conditioning can take place," he said.

He said that during Markle's tenure, the police chief has done a great job recruiting female cadets, and the ample restrooms and locker rooms with showers reflect the changing workforce.

The additional space will enable the police force to bring more applicants to the new facility to complete physical fitness training, helping attract and retain cadets to encourage them to finish the eight-month portion of the police academy training program that they spend in the classroom before going onto field training and probation to complete the two-year program, Sanders said.

The academy could also serve as a training resource hub for other Coastal Bend police agencies, and as a Regional Police Training Academy and backup Emergency Operations Center, if necessary, Zanoni said.

A tour of the interior reveals spacious white walls, bay windows and architecture, with rooms that are adaptable for future installations of video simulation equipment to assist with training or simulation modules in classroom, tactical and fitness training.

For the police academy training's crime scene component, which cadets take in the final phase, participating in scenarios outside of a static classroom environment is key for learning how to apply instincts, tactics and verbal communication to know how to react in real-world situations, which the rooms are equipped for, Sanders said.

"They'll go through the scenario just like they would on the street and will be critiqued based on how they answer calls or respond to whatever the individuals did," he said. "It could be verbal interaction and not a firearm scenario. In the streets, you don't get to do over.

"Here, we have the ability now and the luxury to do over," he said. "To just keep learning and growing is the intent so cadets have the tactics to be able to go in and deal with a situation."

The city is leasing the land from Del Mar College for $10 a year for 50 years, with an option of 50 more years, according to documents referenced in a Caller-Times article.

Working with Del Mar saves taxpayer money through a nominal land lease and co-use of planning, design and infrastructure investments made by the college, Zanoni said.

“We didn’t have to buy land, surveying or geotechnical surveys of land or engineering work to include things like driveways, major utilities or major electrical supply, because that was already in the place at the campus,” he said.

The project has been about four years in the making and includes an initial design cost of $17 million and a construction cost of $21 million, with funding for the project coming from general obligation bonds, certificates of obligation and the fiscal year 2023 general fund.

The Corpus Christi City Council awarded a roughly $1.1 million design contract to Turner Ramirez in March of 2021, according to a Caller-Times article. Design was expected to start that month and take from six to eight months to complete, the article said. The design phase of the project is part of the $75 million 2020 bond measure that voters passed in November that Del Mar district taxpayers voted to pass in November of that year, the article said.

Costs also included about $1.7 million for capital equipment—tables, tactical room and gym equipment and furniture, among other items—and about $1.2 million for engineering administration reimbursements, according to a list of expenditures provided by the city manager.

At a meeting held in December of 2022, Mayor Paulette Guajardo and the City Council approved a $21 million construction contract for Fulton Coaston General Contractors of Corpus Christi, according to a Caller-Times article published that month .

Construction was slated to begin in January 2023 and be completed in the summer of 2024, the article stated.

While project design specifications ranged from 34,000 to roughly 37,000 square feet over 10 acres of land on the Del Mar College Oso Creek Campus, the project was value-engineered to bring costs within the budget and to retain the original building materials, which include metal, the city manager said.

In addition, the quarter-mile outdoor running track was added through a City Council amendment to an agreement with the college to lease nine instead of five acres, according to a Caller-Times article published April 28, 2022.

Construction of the facility has been completed in almost record time, Zanoni said, adding that accessing the additional funding mechanisms allowed the city to proceed with the project without having to wait for subsequent bond programs to cover costs.

As many as 950 applicants applied for the Police Training Academy this spring, and the new facility will enable the police department to accommodate about 1,300, Sanders said.

“Five years ago, we didn’t have enough police officer positions,” Zanoni added. “We still don’t, but we’ve made great strides in the past five years by adding 55 positions. It’s the most that have been added in a consecutive year-after-year way than in probably decades.

“As we do that, we need to be mindful of training and retraining them,” he said.

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Police Training Academy to open this November at Del Mar College Oso Creek campus