Dallas Police Department

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 The Dallas Police Department says more than 100 of its officers currently lack access to computer databases that display important criminal information.  

The Dallas Police Department raised some eyebrows when it posted a video on its blog of two officers rescuing a man from a bridge overpass.

Several Dallas police officers and SWAT members were involved in an hours-long standoff this morning in East Dallas with a man who shot a woman and then barricaded himself in a residence.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown is definitely a fan of Twitter.

He's active on the social media network, posting notes about basketball tournaments and answering questions from his Twitter followers.

But among the updates he posts are the names of the officers and other employees he has recently fired. It all started as an effort to increase transparency. But the city’s police association is complaining about the practice.

Update, 4:56 p.m. Thursday: The Dallas police officer who shot a mentally ill man in a disputed incident caught on tape has been fired, the department announced this afternoon.

Cardan Spencer faced a disciplinary hearing Thursday morning. He has also been charged with aggravated assault.

“Officers are not above the law,” Chief David Brown said at a press conference. “We as a police department are not going to look the other way. We’re not going to sweep officer misconduct under the rug.  Officers’ actions must be reasonable and necessary.”

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Dallas police have opened a criminal investigation and placed an officer on indefinite administrative leave after he shot and wounded a mentally ill man.

A police report says Officer Cardan Spencer fired on 52-year-old Bobby Gerald Bennett in Rylie after he walked toward police with a “knife raised in an aggressive manner.” But surveillance video shows a different story.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown has fired a sergeant for keeping quiet about a murder suspect.

Police say that Sgt. Carlton Barnes failed to give homicide detectives information from a capital murder case in September 2011 after he recognized the suspect as a former classmate. 

UPDATE AT 4 p.m.: The neighborhood watch volunteer suspected of raping four women in southern Dallas has been arrested in Louisiana.

Van Dralan Dixson, 38, was arrested in a motel near downtown Baton Rouge around 2 this afternoon, Dallas police announced at a press conference.

Police believe a single attacker sexually assaulted as many as nine women since June in the Fair Park area.

Police say the attacker forced victims at gunpoint into secluded areas and sexually assaulted them.

Update, 6 p.m.: Erbie Bowser, the 44-year-old suspect in Wednesday's shooting spree, was a certified special education teacher in the Mesquite School District from 2001 to 2010. Laura Jobe with the district says colleagues who knew Bowser are shocked.

Dallas city leaders announced on Tuesday a new partnership aimed at improving blighted and crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Economic Partners Investing in Communities, or EPIC, includes the Dallas Police Department, GrowSouth, Safer Dallas Better Dallas, Communities Foundation of Texas and Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity.

Updated, 6:05 p.m.: DNA tests came back Wednesday, and police filed a third sexual assault charge against Cesar Benitez, who's being held on $4.5 million bail at the Dallas County Jail.

DNA results show one suspect is responsible for the three Lake Highlands sexual assaults, police say. Three women were attacked in their homes in the same neighborhood in one month’s time.

DNA evidence has cleared the suspect arrested by Dallas Police in the first of three sexual assaults in the same Lake Highlands neighborhood.

 The city of Arlington has a new police chief. Will Johnson is being sworn in this afternoon at the Arlington Convention Center. Johnson is already familiar with the job –nearly a year ago he began serving as acting police chief when Theron Bowman was tapped to become a deputy city manager.

A 22 year old man from Dallas is under arrest for shining a laser into a police helicopter overhead looking for a burglary suspect about four o’clock Monday morning.

Dallas Police say they found drugs and guns in the South Dallas house where a foot chase began yesterday evening. It ended with the fatal shooting of a suspect by police.

Storms in Texas have left thousands of homes and businesses without electricity and canceled dozens of flights.

About 7,900 Oncor Electric customers were without power Thursday afternoon as crews worked to restore service. The outages stretch from Sherman to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and into Central Texas.

American Airlines on Thursday canceled 35 flights in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Spokeswoman Dori Alvarez says the Fort Worth-based carrier on Wednesday canceled 140 DFW flights.

The Dallas Police Department says a smartphone app could make stolen goods a lot easier to recover.