Lightfoot says $95M police academy is a done deal, but must be made bigger and better

The $95 million police and fire training academy in West Garfield Park that critics called a symbol of Rahm Emanuel’s misplaced spending priorities is a done deal, but needs to be made bigger, better and, undoubtedly, more expensive, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday.

After touring the current academy and seeing recruits apprehending mock suspects in a dark hallway, Lightfoot came away more convinced than ever that a new academy is essential to improve police training that the U.S. Justice Department found so sorely lacking.

But Lightfoot said she is not at all certain the two-building campus to be built at 4301 W. Chicago Ave. on 30.4 acres — land that has stood stubbornly vacant for decades — is adequate to house a training facility that will be “best-in-class” — not just when it opens, but for decades afterward.

“I don’t know that it’s big enough. I don’t know that the plans, particularly on the fire [department] side, are gonna provide them with the different kind of training scenarios that they need,” the mayor told reporters outside the current facility, 1300 W. Jackson Blvd.

“This is gonna be a significant investment on the West Side that desperately needs investment, but … if we’re gonna make that kind of investment, I want to get it right. I want it to be the best-in-class training facility for first-responders anywhere in the country. That’s what we ought to aspire to.”

Fran Spielman/Chicago Sun-Times

Lightfoot refused to say how much the facility she envisions will cost, except to say it will be a whole lot more than $95 million.

The current funding plan, drawn up by Emanuel, is a patchwork that still has a few holes.

Money for the land, which has already been purchased, comes from the surrounding tax-increment financing district.

The buildings will be bankrolled by: $20 million from the sale of a valuable North Side fleet maintenance facility; $5 million from the sale of the air rights above a River North fire station; and $23 million from the sale of existing police and fire facilities.

Fleet and Facilities Management Commissioner David Reynolds, an Emanuel administration holdover, has said the city would work with the Chicago Infrastructure Trust that Lightfoot wants to abolish to close the remaining $37 million gap, either through a “straight loan,” a lease buy-back arrangement or by issuing “bonds to pay for it ourselves.”

Pressed on how she intends to pay for her more expansive training facility, Lightfoot talked about turning the state-of-the-art facility into a money-maker.

“I think there’s different ways in which we can use that to invite other police and fire departments into what will be a new training academy and make it so that it really pays for itself,” she said.

Much like Wintrust Arena, the police academy project became a symbol of Emanuel’s misplaced priorities. For two years, it has drawn fire from Chance the Rapper, Black Lives Matter and other groups who have organized under the #NoCopAcademy label.

Emanuel was even confronted by anti-academy protesters on college campus visits to other cities.

The coalition has argued that the money would be better spent on jobs, youth and education programs.

Fran Spielman/Sun-Times

Lightfoot’s decision to embrace the project, but make it even better and more costly, is certain to be a disappointment to those activists with whom Lightfoot sided during the mayoral campaign.

“I said that at the time that the City Council made its final vote. That deal has been done. The land has been purchased. There’s been tens of millions of dollars that have already been invested. So, we have to make the best out of that situation,” the mayor said Tuesday.

“That’s why I’m committed to working with the superintendent, working with [Fire Commissioner Richard] Ford and people on the ground in the community to bring the best kind of investment that we possibly can that satisfies the needs of our first-responders, but is a real catalyst for economic development in those communities.”

Former mayoral challenger Ja’Mal Green, who endorsed Lightfoot over Toni Preckwinkle, said he’s not surprised that the new mayor wants to make the academy bigger and better. She pretty much said so back in March, Green said.

“This academy isn’t gonna help the community. But it was pushed through by Rahm and it’s gonna happen,” Green said.

“This police academy is not gonna provide jobs. ... We now have to get what we need for the communities it’s gonna be built in ... to help the root causes of violence: like programs for ex-felons and trade programs.”

Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has long been a cheerleader for a new police academy named after slain Chicago Police Commander Paul Bauer.

Johnson was thrilled to hear about Lightfoot’s commitment to make it even bigger.

“I’m a police executive. I’ll take as much as you give me,” Johnson said.

“I’d rather do things right than to rush them. I think it’s important for us to look at it, get everything in there that we can so that we get it right from the inception and not try to add things as we go.”

City of Chicago