When a Dallas City Auditor found five guns may have gone missing from the City Marshal's Office, it raised eyebrows among city council members and staff.
But an internal memo sent to the Marshal's Office leadership last year obtained and independently verified by KERA News raised questions about whether the problem was worse than previously disclosed.
What led to that confusion? Clerical errors in weapon serial numbers that were only revealed after the city audit into the Marshal's Office released earlier this year, according to a city spokesperson.
The February 2024 memo detailed as many as 13 missing weapons — more than twice the number of guns publicly identified — from the department’s Security Division.
But when asked for clarification, a city spokesperson said three of the weapons had been recovered during the recent audit. Six other serial numbers "contained typographical errors" in the original memo and the weapons were "accounted for in the inventory under the correct serial numbers."
The Marshal’s Office is separate from the Dallas Police Department. KERA reached out the City Marshal’s Office to ask about the discrepancy in the number of missing firearms, whether officials had recovered any of them — and whether those guns had been used in any crimes.
In an emailed response, David Pughes, the department's assistant director, said the memo could contain “duplicate serial numbers,” which "accounted for the higher number."
"I don't know what memo you have, but that discrepancy did exist within a memorandum discovered during the audit," he said.
Of the weapons Pughes was aware of being missing, he said the department verified none of them have been used in a crime since being misplaced.
The initial audit found at least five firearms are “potentially” missing from the marshal’s department. Four of those are from the department’s Security Division. Officers in that unit provide security services for city buildings and other special events.
A city spokesperson confirmed "the only unaccounted for firearms are those listed in the audit."
KERA also reached out to the entire Dallas City Council and Mayor Eric Johnson about the memo differing from what the auditor told them publicly.
“During my time as an Army Officer, it was drilled into my head that accountability for our weapons and the weapons of my soldiers was of [utmost] importance, so much so that one would likely be court marshalled for losing or failing to secure a weapon,” District 1 Council Member Chad West told KERA in an email Monday.
West said the council and Dallas residents “deserve a full and transparent accounting of all weapons moving forward" and added that department leadership needs to take steps to ensure that "a process exists to prevent this situation from ever happening again."
District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn told KERA in a text on Monday that she asked the City Auditor to “review his notes to ensure his findings were documented completely regarding all weapons.”
“The update I have received so far includes information that the memo is outdated,” Mendelsohn added — but declined to give more details when asked earlier in the week.
The auditor’s report — presented to city officials in late February — found the five firearms are “not currently used for active duty and no longer comply with” the department’s general orders.
Pughes told elected officials there were procedures in place to catalog weapons, but the process hadn’t been carried out consistently.
“I think there’s a couple of issues that were concerning to me,” Pughes said during the meeting. “It was just the lack of documentation…going backwards, 10 to 20 years backwards.”
Pughes said all the records were on paper — and the department changed over time.
“There was just a lot of movement, I think, that took place that probably also resulted in some of the lack of records,” Pughes said. “The auditors did the best that they could with our lack of documentation.”
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
