The New York City Police Academy is the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

academy of the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

(NYPD). Within the

organization of the New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is structured into numerous bureaus and units. As a whole, the NYPD is headed by the Police Commissioner, a civilian administrator appointed by the Mayor, with the senior sworn uniformed officer o ...

, the Chief of Training oversees the Training Bureau, which includes the Police Academy, the

NYPD Cadet Corps The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the New York City, City of New York, the largest and one of ...

, and other units.

History

The old Police Academy opened in 1964 and was located at 235 East 20th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

,David W. Dunlap
$950 Million Police Academy Simulates the Mean Streets
''New York Times'' (March 16, 2016). in the Gramercy Park area. Within 25 years, however, the facility was regarded as antiquated and obsolete, and no longer had capacity for larger classes of police trainees.

Diane Cardwell Diane Cardwell is an African-American former business reporter for The New York Times focusing on renewable energy. Early life In an interview for ''BULLPEN'', a student-written webzine by NYU's Department of Journalism, Cardwell replied that sh ...

Police Academy to Move From Longtime Home in Gramercy Park to Queens
''New York Times'' (April 6, 2007).

Jeremy Travis Jeremy Travis (born July 31, 1948) is an American academic administrator who served as the fourth president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a senior college of the City University of New York, starting on August 16, 2004. On October 25, ...

(then the special counsel to the police commissioner, and years later the president of the

John Jay College of Criminal Justice The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts ...

) urged construction of a new facility in 1985. In 1989,

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Edward I. Koch promised a new facility to be located in the South Bronx, and in 1992, during the mayoralty of

David N. Dinkins David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office. Before enteri ...

, architects were chosen and plans were released. However, Mayor

Rudolph W. Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1 ...

canceled the plans for a new facility. In 2007, plans for a new police training center were revived under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, with the new facility to be located on a 35-acre tract in

College Point, Queens College Point is a working-middle-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded to the south by Whitestone Expressway and Flushing; to the east by 138th Street and Malba/ Whitestone; to the north by the East River; an ...

, that previously housed a police tow parking lot owned by the city. Seven other locations, including the decommissioned Flushing Airport, the Seaview Hospital and Farm Colony in Staten Island, and

Floyd Bennett Field Floyd Bennett Field is an airfield in the Marine Park neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn in New York City, along the shore of Jamaica Bay. The airport originally hosted commercial and general aviation traffic before being used as a naval air ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, were considered before the College Point site was ultimately chosen. Groundbreaking officially occurred in December 2009. Phase One opened in December 2015. After the NYPD moved its academy to Queens, the fate of the old academy building was initially unclear. In 2008 and 2013, local residents and

Manhattan Community Board 6 Manhattan Community Board 6 is a New York City community board, part of the local government apparatus of the city, with responsibility for the East Side of Manhattan from 14th Street to 59th Street. This includes the neighborhoods of Gramerc ...

pushed to convert the eight-story building into a public school. In October 2016, however, the NYPD opened its Candidate Assessment Center in the old building; the center recruits applicants to join the police department.Rocco Parascandola
NYPD campaign wants new recruits to 'bring who you are,' stresses 'compassionate' policing
''New York Daily News'' (October 23, 2016).

Description

The new facility is located at 130-30 28th Avenue, was constructed at a cost of $950 million, and has three buildings with a combined 730,000 square feet of space. It is not easily accessible by public transit; the closest New York City Subway station, Flushing–Main Street, is more than one mile away. Perkins & Will
Tactical Design
and Michael Fieldman were the project's architects, and

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for turni ...

and STV were the

construction manager Construction management (CM) is a professional service that uses specialized, project management techniques and software to oversee the planning, design, construction and closeout of a project. The purpose of Construction management is to control ...

s. The three buildings at the academy are a classroom and office building (eight stories, with an atrium, cafeteria, auditorium, and library); a "physical and tactical training" building, including a large gymnasium and swimming pool; and a central utilities plant. The training facilities include simulated locations, such as a mock subway station, mock courthouses, and mock precinct houses. The main police academy site does not include a

firing range A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by militar ...

(the NYPD range is located at

Rodman's Neck Rodman's Neck (formerly Ann Hook's Neck) refers to a peninsula of land in the New York City borough of the Bronx that juts out into Long Island Sound. The southern third of the peninsula is used as a firing range by the New York City Police Depar ...

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

), nor is the facility used for driving instruction (NYPD officers train in driving at Floyd Bennett Field).

References

External links

Police Academy, College Point, Queens: Final Environmental Impact Statement
{{Coord, 40, 46, 19, N, 73, 50, 23, W, display=title New York City Police Department Police academies in the United States Government buildings in Queens, New York New York City Police Department buildings