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What You Need To Know About The 2021 Dallas City Budget

The Dallas City Council voted on Sept. 23 to approve a roughly $3.8 billion budget for the upcoming year. The police department’s $500 million budget will remain mostly intact, despite calls from residents and activists to slash $200 million from the police.
The "Defund the police, fund the community" banner is seen among the crowd of around 100 people at Friday's community gathering at Dallas City Hall.
Keren Carrión
/
KERA
The "Defund the police, fund the community" banner is seen among the crowd of around 100 people at Friday's community gathering at Dallas City Hall.

The final Dallas' 2020-2021 budgetwill go into effect Oct. 1, and was mostly unchanged from the initial proposed budget shared by City Manager T.C. Broadnax over the summer.

Though funding for police remained largely the same, the council trimmed the police overtime budget by $7 million.

The budget allocated funding for the expansion of the RIGHT Care program that pairs police, EMS and mental health professionals together to handle mental health emergencies.

Council also put money toward expanding the Office of Community Police Oversight, programs to reduce implicit bias and training in de-escalation and less-lethal tactics.

The city also expanded funding for 3,000 additional mobile internet hotspots.

City of Dallas FY 2020-21 Budget Presentation

In the weeks leading up to the vote, budget talks were heated as activists and community members called for the city to “defund the police.”

Local activist groups like Our City Our Future have proposed redirecting $200 million from the $500 million police budget towards social services like housing, education and mental health programs. Activists say improving the quality of citizens’ lives rather than policing them will create better outcomes for Black and brown communities.

In the midst of all this, Dallas Police Chief Reneé Hall recently announced she'll leave her post at the end of the year.


Latest Dallas Budget News