More than half the package would go toward completing a new Dallas Police Department training academy at the University of North Texas at Dallas, according to supporters. The proposal also includes $150 million for a police evidence room and crime lab, $22 million to replace Fire-Rescue Station 4 on Akard Street, and $40 million to move 311 and 911 operations out of City Hall.

Supporters say the projects would address aging facilities and improve public-safety services. District 4 Council Member Maxie Johnson joined representatives of the Dallas Police Association, the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas and the Dallas Black Firefighters Association to urge voters to approve the measure.

“We’re going to bond together, we’re going to build together and we’re going to support our public safety bond,” Johnson said. “It’s simple, vote yes.”

Opponents, organized through a political action committee called Bust the Bond, argue the city should limit its request rather than approve the full package. District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn is listed as the committee’s treasurer. She wants voters to reject Proposition A in November and consider a smaller bond next May focused on the police academy and a proposed public-safety complex in southwest Dallas.

“People who are saying ‘bust the bond’ are also saying we want a better bond and we love Dallas enough to not let it make a mistake,” Mendelsohn said. “And the mistake would be just opening up the purse once again.”

Some voters interviewed during early voting said they had not noticed much campaigning and were trying to make sense of the measure at the polling place. Trevor Childers said the ballot language left him with questions about what the bond would and would not accomplish. Jim Collins said the public-safety focus persuaded him to vote yes.

The dispute has divided both the council and Dallas’ political establishment, said Matthew Wilson, a political science expert at Southern Methodist University. He said higher-profile contests elsewhere on the ballot could increase turnout and make the bond election more closely watched. Wilson also suggested that voters who have not followed the debate may treat the measure as a straightforward choice about public safety.

Dallas Proposition A is a city bond and is separate from Dallas County’s Proposition A, which concerns a proposed property-tax increase to address homelessness. Voters can review project information from the city and positions from both campaigns before casting ballots.