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Dallas City Council To Reconsider Verified Response

By Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-624775.mp3

Dallas, TX – Zeeble: At Wednesday's Council Briefing, debate points mirrored those of a year and a half ago, when the council first approved the verified response policy, 8 to 5. Most alarms are false, said police. Verify them first, so officers don't waste time. On Wednesday, Council man Mitchell Rasansky disagreed.

Dallas City Council man Mitchell Rasansky: What I'm interested in is someone coming to his business and finds a burglar in there and tries to stop them, and might get killed. These businesses pay taxes like everyone else, and they're entitled to police responding.

Zeeble: Council woman Vonciel Hill likes the policy as is.

Vonciel Hill, Dallas Council Member : The reality is almost 100 percent of alarms are false. This is about how many police officers do we have. I would rather have those officers going to a true priority-one emergency than responding to a false alarm.

Zeeble: Mayor Leppert dislikes the verified response policy. The council will decide to keep or change it next week. Bill Zeeble KERA news.
Bzeeble@Kera.Org