City Hall drops the $225 million College Point 'Public Safety Academy.' What it was and what the Council heard
The plan began as a correction officer academy under de Blasio and grew under Adams. Council Member Vickie Paladino, whose district includes the site, called the cancellation 'disappointing but unsurprising.'
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has scrapped plans for a combined "Public Safety Academy" next to the NYPD's training academy in College Point, Queens. City Hall confirmed it this week. "We stopped plans for the previously proposed public safety academy," a spokesperson told City & State.
Why it matters to residents: the project was a long-planned piece of the city's capital budget for public safety training. Critics nicknamed it "Cop City," after a disputed training center in Atlanta. Supporters said the city's smaller law enforcement agencies need a modern place to train.
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How the project grew
City & State traced the history:
- 2017: Mayor Bill de Blasio set aside $100 million for a new correction officer academy.
- 2021: De Blasio said it would be built next to the police academy in College Point.
- 2024: Mayor Eric Adams expanded the plan to train officers from the city's smaller enforcement agencies, such as sanitation and parks. The price grew to about $225 million.
Construction never started. Mamdani said in 2024 that the city didn't need to spend more than $200 million on the site and repeated that during his campaign, the outlet reported. It did not report any new plan for the lot.
What officials have said
Council Member Vickie Paladino, whose district includes the academy, called the decision "disappointing but unsurprising," City & State reported. She argued the city should be investing in recruiting and keeping officers.
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What our records add
No Council vote was needed to cancel it. Capital projects are funded through the city budget, and our records show no Council bill or resolution about the College Point academy this term. We also found no Council hearing this year where it was discussed by name.
Correction training came up at budget time. At a June 2 Finance Committee hearing on the Department of Correction's budget, the department said it had just graduated 261 new correction officers. It called that its largest academy class in nearly seven years. Later, a member pointed to budget documents showing a 77% cut, about $3.5 million, in the line for correction academy recruits (transcript). Officials said they weren't aware of a cut and would follow up (transcript).
Where training is discussed. NYPD training and hiring usually come before the Committee on Public Safety, which has 97 items pending. It meets Friday, Oct. 30 (meeting page). Correction officer training falls under the Committee on Criminal Justice.
What's next
City Hall has not said what will happen to the College Point lot. Any money freed up in the capital plan would show up in the mayor's preliminary budget, due early next year, and then in Council budget hearings in the spring.