COLORADO SPRINGS — A plan is in the works to build a new police training academy in Colorado Springs.
“The limitations around this space impacts our ability to recruit, retain, and also meet the needs that we need for our community,” said Colorado Springs Mayor, Yemi Mobolade.
Public safety is a priority for the mayor, and he says the police academy needs an upgrade to attract more quality officers.
The police department is also changing to a continuous hiring process.
“With that, every 15 weeks we're going to be starting a new academy class,” said Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez, “So we're almost always going to have two recruit classes going at any given time.”
The current training academy is in a building converted from what was a lighting business nearly 30 years ago.
A tour of the building showed some of the limitations that can be caused by a lack of space.
Planners are considering options that range from finding another building and remodeling to buying property and building a custom facility.
The budget range is estimated from $12 million up to $40 million.
Mayor Mobolade hopes voters in Colorado Springs will supplement the budget for the new academy by asking them to forgo a tabor refund of excess tax dollars.
WATCH: MAYOR MOBOLADE'S TABOR RETENTION PLAN
If Colorado Springs City Council okays it for the ballot and voters say yes, it would take $5 million in excess tax revenue to help build the police academy project.
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