It took the Dallas City Council hours on Wednesday to ultimately do what top police officials recommended last week: set the officer hiring goal at 300 — and no more for now.
The debate caused a fracture within the city council. Public safety and police staffing levels have always been a top priority for the city — and for nearly all the council members, many of whom will be vying to keep their seats at City Hall come the May election.
The resolution is not binding. And police officials told the council that it was too premature to think about other hiring goals — also laid out in the resolution.
Some council members said the hiring goal was a good start — but not enough. But others said the resolution is nothing more than political theater — and accused their colleagues of using the police department as a “political pawn.”
“When I have an interim chief of police…the last thing I want to do is set him up for failure,” Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua said. “The other thing that I would not like to do is to throw him in the mix as being …a political pawn.”
Igo told the council that moving the hiring goal could result in taking officers off patrol routes to train new recruits — and create a larger funding gap in the department’s budget.
It’ll cost the city millions to hire and train the new officers.
“Moving the needle to 325 means me moving critical resources out of the patrol bureau,” Igo said. “With the thought of increased response times and an increase in crime overall.”
District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn said having a higher hiring goal is what Dallas voters asked for last year when they approved Proposition U.
“…Calling for nearly 900 additional officers, despite former mayors, Dallas County officials and every elected official sitting around this horseshoe saying ‘do not vote for it’,” Mendelsohn said. “The voters still approved it.”
Proposition U narrowly passed last November with just over 50% of the vote.
District 2 Council Member Jesse Moreno, who has seemingly shifted who he aligns himself with around the council, had a similar take as Mendelsohn.
“We must set the bar higher,” Moreno said. “The only way we achieve a higher number is by setting a higher goal.”
Moreno and Mendelsohn were the only two council members to vote against the resolution. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson was absent from Wednesday’s meeting.
Zarin Gracey, who represents parts of southern Dallas in District 3, said he was confused about a basic question: why more officers?
“This silly, silly loop is so extremely frustrating and it’s hard to support these types of things,” Gracey said. “I just don’t have…a rational answer to the why. If crime is being reduced, why?”
He added he was in favor of more officers but wanted to know why adding more stress to the department’s budget.
Police officials and the majority of council members seemed to agree that the right way to increase the hiring rate is to do it incrementally.
District 13 Council Member Gay Donnell Willis said the city isn’t “time bound” to recruit, hire and train these officers — but something else on the horizon is.
“…And that’s an election, its May 3rd,” Willis said.
Only District 14 Council Member Paul Ridley is running truly unopposed in the upcoming election. The rest of the council will be working to stay in their seats — and new challengers will try and claim a handful of open seats at City Hall.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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