{"id":337856,"date":"2025-10-28T07:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T07:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/337856\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T07:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T07:14:09","slug":"dallas-hired-more-cops-and-the-sky-didnt-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/337856\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas hired more cops, and the sky didn\u2019t fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember earlier this year when council members acted like the sky would fall down if Dallas tried to hire too many police officers<\/a>? It turns out that was melodrama.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Citing such concerns, the council voted to put the hiring target to 300. And we would generally agree that 25 extra officers wouldn\u2019t be worth the hit to public safety. <\/p>\n

But our newsroom recently reported the Dallas Police Department exceeded its goal and added 330 recruits and officers<\/a> between October and the end of September. Oh, and a Dallas police spokesperson told us it didn\u2019t involve moving any officer off patrol. Looks like the elevated hiring number wasn\u2019t so unrealistic after all. <\/p>\n

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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. <\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n

But when it\u2019s said and done, the warnings tend to fizzle out. Hiring more cops didn\u2019t become a public safety problem, as some suggested it might. And it\u2019s been a largely similar story with Proposition U, which requires the city to maintain a police force of 4,000, among other provisions.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> it. Voters passed it<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Then, in September, the city approved a well-crafted budget \u2014 its largest ever<\/a> \u2014 that included heavy investments in the police force. And DPD hopes to reach the goal of 4,000 officers by 2029<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Whoops. Seems like it wasn\u2019t impossible after all. And complying with Proposition U hasn\u2019t bankrupted the city<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s exhausting.<\/p>\n

Thank the stars Dallas has police staff who are willing to make changes and improve the department\u2019s hiring efforts. If the City Council had its way, we\u2019d be exactly where we were a few years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remember earlier this year when council members acted like the sky would fall down if Dallas tried to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":337857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,14840,14842,6083,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-337856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-city-council","11":"tag-dallas-police","12":"tag-editorials","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115450561432847705","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}