Dallas City Council unanimously approved new hiring standards for police officer trainees during its Wednesday meeting.
The resolution amended entry-level hiring standards for the Dallas Police Department to require recruits to be at least 21 years of age, have a high school diploma or GED, and have three years of consecutive work experience.
City Council member Cara Mendelsohn, who worked on the resolution in the Public Safety committee, said the work experience did not have to be three years at one employer.
"What this is going to do is meet some of the challenges that DPD already has about people showing up on time and being dependable, understanding work, life, and all sorts of interactions with people," Mendelsohn said.
An amendment to the resolution was proposed by council member Adam Bazaldua who proposed lowering the work experience to two years instead of three.
Bazaldua, who has taught 18-year-old students, said he didn't think expecting three years of consecutive work experience from ages 18 to 21 to be realistic.
"If the intent of this is to remove barriers, I'm hoping that we can make this policy change actually be something that removes barriers and opens up better opportunity," Bazaldua said.
Assistant Chief Deputy Eddy Herrera said they proposed the three years, or 36 months, to reflect standards at other departments, like the Houston Police Department.
Herrera said some college graduates apply but don't have the full 36 months of work experience. However, they have a college degree.
"So our goal was to establish a baseline so that we can take into consideration maturity, decision-making," Herrera said. "Do they show up for work? Are they reliable? These are attributes that we're going to need if we're gonna grow police officers."
The resolution was unanimously passed without Bazaldua's amendment.
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