Dallas’ police oversight board is requesting regular reports from the Dallas Police Department on its day-to-day interactions with federal immigration authorities — a step the board’s chairman described as necessary for transparency and community trust.
The ask came in a Wednesday memo from the chairman, John Mark Davidson, to police Chief Daniel Comeaux. Davidson said it was prompted by videos circulating online that appeared to show city officers working alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“These materials,” Davidson wrote in the request he said was on the board’s behalf, “have generated significant community concern regarding the scope of DPD’s role in such encounters, the training officers receive to handle immigration-related situations and whether departmental policies are being consistently followed.”
The memo asked the department to provide the information or a response by the close of business on Feb. 2. Allison Hudson, a police spokesperson, declined to comment on the memo Friday and said the department would not comment until it had responded to the board by that date.
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Police oversight board chairman John Mark Davidson (left) officiates the monthly Community Police Oversight Board meeting, on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at Dallas City Hall in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
The board’s push for routine disclosures follows months of questions about Dallas officers’ role in immigration-related encounters and the department’s relationship with federal agencies, including a City Hall debate over whether the city should join the federal 287(g) program. The program would allow local officers to carry out certain immigration-enforcement functions. City Council members ultimately shelved the idea.
Last fall, Comeaux said the department has “very little interaction” with ICE and that when officers show up at ICE-related scenes, it is typically to maintain a perimeter or safety after a call. The department, he has said, then helps at the agency’s request.
The board’s request also lands as the Trump administration presses a sweeping deportation drive nationwide, including in North Texas.
Noemi Rios, co-founder of Vecinos Unidos DFW, speaks as the community group along with the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association, and Somos Tejas hold a press conference calling on the city and Dallas Police to reject collaboration with ICE/DHA under the 287(g) program outside of Dallas City Hall in Dallas on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
A Dallas Morning News analysis of ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project found that agents arrested about 12,100 people from Jan. 20 to Oct. 16, 2025, in the Dallas area of responsibility, which spans 128 counties in North Texas and all of Oklahoma. That is a 108% increase from the same period a year earlier.
In the memo, Davidson asked the department to provide monthly reports detailing ICE-related encounters involving Dallas officers, including why police got involved, what they did at the scene and the incident’s outcome.
Davidson also asked the department to brief the oversight board on its training and guidance for immigration-related situations, including what instruction officers already receive, any recent changes, planned updates to the curriculum and what guidance officers get on interacting with federal immigration authorities.