The Dallas Police Department says it wants to be "the center of gravity for all things constitutional policing." That includes forming a new unit that will focus on analyzing what goes on inside the department — and to make policy recommendations that work to fix any issues.
That’s what was presented at Monday’s Public Safety Committee meeting.
Police officials defined constitutional policing as practices that center on accountability, transparency and “a commitment to upholding the constitutional rights of citizens.” They also say units like these usually spring up after consent decrees — or federal intervention after a pattern of misconduct.
“The goal of this is to strengthen this police department for the future,” Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said during the meeting. “That’s what we’re trying to do without being told to do it.”
Police officials cited a quote from U.S. Chief District Judge James Bredar as their reasoning for forming the unit now. Bredar is the judge overseeing the Baltimore Police Department’s consent decree and calls for all law enforcement agencies across the country have a “compliance bureau” that focuses on constitutional policing to ensure a “department does not lose its way.”
But Dallas isn’t alone in the formation of a specialty unit focused on constitutional policing.
In the late 1990s, the Rampart Area Corruption incident caused the Los Angeles Police Department to come under a federal consent decree. The incident involved Los Angeles police officers engaging in “blatant misconduct and, in some cases, criminal behavior,” according to an early 2000s Department of Justice report.
The LAPD’s Office of Constitutional Policing and Policy was created after its formal consent decree was lifted. According to the agency’s website the unit has various responsibilities including managing the department’s legal affairs and risk management initiatives and administering internal auditing and compliance programs.
Other agencies that have constitutional policing units include the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Orlando Police Department.
Dallas officials say they are trying to be proactive instead of reactive.
“It is our long-term goal to be the center of gravity for all things constitutional policing,” Constitutional Police Unit Commander Lt. Julio Gonzalez said during the meeting.
That includes ensuring officers are “upholding the highest standards of policing”, to “preserve the integrity of the department” and to reinforce the department’s “reputation as a national leader.”
“We will now have accountability for upholding the constitutional rights of our citizens,” District 11 Council Member Kathy Stewart said. “Public safety in general is a challenge and…making sure that we protect the rights of the citizens and the people involved in that process can be a challenge as well and I am thrilled to see there will be an office focused on this.”
The department’s website indicates that an existing unit already has some of those responsibilities.
“The Internal Affairs Division has the responsibility of conducting independent administrative investigations of allegations of misconduct or critical incidents involving members of the Dallas Police Department,” the divisions website said.
KERA reached out to the department to ask how the new unit would work in tandem with Internal Affairs but city officials say it will stand alone. The unit's goals are to "evaluate the Department’s patterns, practices, and policies and will make recommendations for improvement to the Chief of Police based on a review of best practices in law enforcement."
A department spokesperson also told KERA the new unit was not formed for any specific reason.
"The unit was created proactively to build on the Department’s recent successes and commitment to transparency," the spokesperson told KERA.
Officials laid out a three-part plan to implement the constitutional policing unit. That consists of four separate reviews of the department completed by a third-party consultant, advising the chief of police on recommendations and then monitoring areas of success. Those reviews will be focused on “high risk areas” that have yet to be decided.
According to the briefing, the first phase of the plan is already underway and initial practice recommendations are planned for February 2024. From there the department will launch a website, host employee and expert roundtables about the initiative and create an internal database to track different recommendations.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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