Several Dallas residents and at least one Dallas City Council member have raised concerns that the police department’s proposed starting salary is not competitive and doesn’t comply with voter-approved Proposition U.
Is that true? It’s complicated.
Records obtained by KERA News indicate that Dallas would rank third out of 24 cities in the metroplex, with combined salary and non-pension benefits, while complying with Prop U.
The starting salary in the proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget is based off a survey conducted in March of this year and also combines non-pension benefits in its total number and ranking. This is allowed under Proposition U, but it does not guarantee that every officer will receive the same starting pay.
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn issued a memo to City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and Chief of Public Safety Dominique Artis last month to express "serious concerns" over the proposed salary asked for updated information to be given to city council.
Mendelsohn said in her memo that the information was outdated due to the "rapid change of pace" in the North Texas labor market.
She cited at least 20 cities in North Texas that pay above the proposed budgeted amount and added that this posed risks to the police department's recruitment and retention.
Salary information Mendelsohn referenced is from data collected by DFW Fire and Police Salaries, a website that compares police and fire department pay throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The website includes a disclaimer that the data on its site may not be accurate or up to date.
The city's fiscal year starts Oct. 1. The City Council is set to approve the budget on Sept. 17.
The proposed starting salary for police and fire department recruits is $81,232, an increase from the current rate at $75,397.
.@CityOfDallas Budget problem! The proposed pay rates are not competitive.
— Cara Mendelsohn 🟦 (@caraathome) August 14, 2025
My memo to the City Manager & Asst City Manager over Public Safety.#publicsafety pic.twitter.com/ChSiRjRGJp
"I would love us to be able to say we're paying top," Mendelsohn said during a budget workshop last month. "We have the number one police department in the United States, we should be paying them the number one amount."
A memo sent on Sept. 5 by Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland to the city council ranked Dallas 12th out of 24 peer cities in North Texas with the proposed base salary. However, the city ranks third — after Allen and Frisco — with combined salary and non-pension benefits.
But Mendelsohn told KERA that Ireland’s memo does not address her concerns because it still compares Dallas’ proposed salary rate with outdated information from cities that have changed their salaries since the survey.
The DFW Fire and Police website data Mendelsohn relied on compared salaries with Dallas’ current starting salary, not including non-pension benefits, and ranked 46 cities above Dallas. However, 23 of those cities have populations of less than 50,000 people.
Combining the proposed base salary of $81,232 with non-pension related benefits brings the potential starting salary at $91,912 which appears to boost Dallas’ ranking even higher.
Ireland said during last month's budget workshop that the survey is typically conducted in February and March, so the report was made in its scheduled time. He added that Dallas is not top five of cities when it comes to starting pay.
"But when you look at starting pay and non-pension benefits, including education pay, bilingual pay, and assignment pay, we do rise up within the region," Ireland said. "And, at least based on the survey and the time it was done, that pulls us to third place."
However, not all officers are eligible for every non-pension related benefit to get to the max starting of just under $92,000.
Mendelsohn said many officers don't have a bachelor's degree, are not bilingual, and are not on a shift differential.
“So that means they're really far behind and they could immediately take up and go to another location and get paid a lot more,” she said.
There were at least 13 residents who spoke against the proposed base salary during last week's city council briefing, most of them from Council Member William Roth's District 11.
KERA also reached out to Roth's office and did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Tina Lewis Peterson was among the residents concerned about Dallas' ranking as 12th in North Texas for its proposed starting salary. She said the city included "selective add-ons" like non-pension related benefits, such as bilingual pay, to inflate the numbers.
"These accounting games are misleading to officers, residents, and directly undermine the spirit of the law," Lewis Peterson said.
Charles Moncrief, a District 10 resident, also said the proposed salary did not align with Proposition U. Moncrief said city staff were playing word games by including stipends as salary.
"If you need money, cut somewhere else. Cut until you find the dollars, but don't short-change public safety," Moncrief said. "Dallas voters demand real investment and not re-imagining."
Proposition U requirements
Proposition U was passed by Dallas voters last November, requiring the city of Dallas to spend no less than 50% of new, annual revenue to fund the police and fire pension. It also mandates that the city increase the number of sworn police officers to a minimum of 4,000.
It requires combined starting salary and non-pension benefits — excluding sign-on bonuses — to be within the top five of all city police departments in Dallas, Collin, Tarrant, Denton, and Rockwall Counties with a population over 50,000.
Out of the proposed $5.2 billion budget, there is $1.97 billion for the city's general fund. Out of that general fund, $1.2 billion will be allocated for the police and fire departments, representing around 62% of the general fund.
Dallas' proposed base salary for police combined with non-pension benefits — education pay, bilingual pay, assignment pay — ranks the city at third. Ireland said in his memo that this follows Prop U because the language includes “starting combined salary and non-pension benefits.”
Mendelsohn said the proposed rate doesn't appear to meet the intent of Prop U, which voters approved with under the impression that the city would competitively pay its police officers.
She was against Prop U because she says it was poorly written and oversimplifies staffing issues.
When it comes to public safety, Mendelsohn says she doesn't want to shortchange the solutions. She said she wants to ensure the city does everything it can to attract, train and retain the finest professional staff.
"While I do appreciate that we are increasing our recruiting goal, increasing our staffing level, and increasing the pay, I don't believe it's gone far enough," Mendelsohn said.
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