“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my team is working extremely hard to fill recruit classes,” said DPD interim chief Michael Igo.
DALLAS — The Dallas City Council set a new hiring target for the Dallas Police Department on Wednesday. It’s not the number mandated by a 2024 proposition but one that gets the police force closer than it was before.
Voter approval of Proposition U required DPD to reach a staffing level of 4,000 police officers. That would mean adding roughly 900 new officers in a very short amount of time. Currently, the department trains about 250 new recruits each year.
A proposal Wednesday, introduced by Public Safety Committee Chair Cara Mendelsohn, proposed setting a target of 325 new officers this fiscal year, increasing the target to 350 new officers for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, and 400 new officers in the fiscal year 2026-2027.
“I want to support them in trying to reach that 325 hiring goal and revising their work plan and budget to achieve it,” Mendelsohn said.
Interim Police Chief Michael Igo, as he has said in previous presentations to the city council, said the new targets would be difficult to reach. Adding more staff to his recruiting and training team would also likely mean taking other officers off patrol, at least temporarily, to beef up the training program.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my team is working extremely hard to fill recruit classes,” Igo told the city council. “If it was as simple as snapping my fingers to get the recruits in we would do that in a heartbeat.”
“Guys we cannot change things overnight,” said councilmember Adam Bazaldua as he introduced an amendment to make 300 the new recruiting target instead.
“It’s upsetting to see our police department be thrown into a discussion as political pawns,” Bazaldua said, calling higher numbers difficult for the department to reach “performative art.”
“This is not performative art,” Mendelsohn said of her proposed higher targets. “This is actually about being responsive to our residents.”
At the end of a lengthy debate, the council approved the new hiring target of 300 additional officers for 2025, tabling discussion of future year targets for a later date. The vote passed 12-2 with Mendelsohn and Councilmember Jesse Moreno voting no.
The hiring target does not meet the requirements of Prop. U. But the group behind the effort seemed pleased with the attempt.
“I think as long as the city is making a good faith effort to hire more officers, this isn’t going to be a litigious issue,” said Damien LeVeck of Dallas Hero “However, if we don’t get on track for 4,000 officers in three to five years, then it could become a problem.”
Igo says DPD has trained 133 new recruits so far this year, needing 167 more in the next seven months to reach at least 300.
