Remember earlier this year when council members acted like the sky would fall down if Dallas tried to hire too many police officers? It turns out that was melodrama.
In February, then-interim police Chief Michael Igo told council members that moving the hiring target from 300 to 325 would require shifting some 40 sworn staff out of the patrol ranks to ensure recruits are trained properly, potentially impacting crime and response times.
Citing such concerns, the council voted to put the hiring target to 300. And we would generally agree that 25 extra officers wouldn’t be worth the hit to public safety.
But our newsroom recently reported the Dallas Police Department exceeded its goal and added 330 recruits and officers between October and the end of September. Oh, and a Dallas police spokesperson told us it didn’t involve moving any officer off patrol. Looks like the elevated hiring number wasn’t so unrealistic after all.
Opinion
We have nothing but respect and praise for the Dallas Police Department staffers who showed initiative, put in the work and got this done for our city. We just wish our council members and top staff were similarly industrious.
This incident represents the heart of what so many Dallasites find so frustrating about City Hall. They tell council members what they want and the answer they often get back is why it simply can’t be done. Sometimes, council members pair that with scary promises about the horrors that will befall the city if residents were to get what they asked for.
But when it’s said and done, the warnings tend to fizzle out. Hiring more cops didn’t become a public safety problem, as some suggested it might. And it’s been a largely similar story with Proposition U, which requires the city to maintain a police force of 4,000, among other provisions.
Voters were told that passing it would bankrupt the city and that there was no way to quickly hire hundreds more officers. We were worried too and recommended against it. Voters passed it.
Then, in September, the city approved a well-crafted budget — its largest ever — that included heavy investments in the police force. And DPD hopes to reach the goal of 4,000 officers by 2029.
Whoops. Seems like it wasn’t impossible after all. And complying with Proposition U hasn’t bankrupted the city.
Where does all this leave residents? In a city where getting anything done is an uphill battle. Council members and top staff too often sit on their hands until residents force them to move. And whether that means waiting hours on end at a council meeting to address city leadership or organizing petitions, it’s exhausting.
Thank the stars Dallas has police staff who are willing to make changes and improve the department’s hiring efforts. If the City Council had its way, we’d be exactly where we were a few years ago.