Dallas Police Department | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | DPD |
Agency overview | |
Formed | 1881 |
Employees | 3,581 (2020) [1] |
Annual budget | $517 m (2020) [2] |
Jurisdictional structure | |
Operations jurisdiction | Dallas, Texas, United States |
Size | 342.5 square miles (887 km2) |
Population | 1,345,076 (2018) |
Legal jurisdiction | Dallas |
Governing body | Dallas City Council |
Operational structure | |
Headquarters | 1400 S. Botham Jean Blvd., Dallas, Texas |
Officers | 3,007 (2020) |
Civilians | 574 (2020) |
Agency executive |
|
Facilities | |
Stations | 7
|
Marked police cars | 1200 |
Unmarked vehicles | 900 |
Motorcycles | 40 |
Police Boats | 2 |
Helicopters | 2 |
Website | |
dallaspolice |
The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas.
The department is headed by a chief of police who is appointed by the city manager who, in turn, is hired by the Dallas City Council. The city manager is not an elected official.
Primary responsibility for calls for police service are seven operations divisions based on geographical subdivisions of the city. Each operations division is commanded by a deputy chief of police. The divisions are designated Central, Northeast, Southeast, South Central, Southwest, Northwest and North Central and operate from facilities which are referred to as substations. Each operations division's geographical area is further subdivided into sectors which are composed of beats, each of which is normally patrolled by a uniformed officer or officers in a squad car. Calls for service are received primarily through the city's 9-1-1 system which is answered by a city-operated emergency communications center. Each substation also has an investigative unit with detectives who are assigned cases of burglary and theft which are committed within the area covered by their division.
Other crimes are investigated by specialized investigative units including the Child Abuse Squad, Family Violence Squad, Narcotics Division, CAPERS [Crimes Against Persons] Robbery, Assault, and Homicide Units, Forgery Squad and a Computer Crimes Team.
A specialized Tactical Division includes a SWAT Operations Unit, Mounted Unit, Canine Unit, Helicopter Unit and an Explosive Ordnance Squad. The SWAT Operations Unit was featured on a reality series for the A&E Network in 2006 entitled "Dallas SWAT".
Officers usually are armed with a SIG-Sauer P226 usually in 9mm with some in .357 SIG as their sidearm, but some officers do carry Glock pistols.
The first Chief of Police, J. C. Arnold, was elected in 1881. [4] Prior to that, an elected Town Marshal and deputies had guarded Dallas since 1856.[ citation needed ] Arnold held the position for 17 years.[ citation needed ]
By 1898, 34 officers patrolled the city on horseback.[ citation needed ] In 1907, the department acquired an automobile and two motorcycles.[ citation needed ]
During the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan in Dallas in the 1920s, a sizable number of DPD were KKK members, including police commissioners and police chiefs. [5] [6] [7] One list of members includes at least 106 Dallas police officers, which at the time was the majority of the police department. [8] During this period, the DPD did not protect the non-white community in Dallas and did not pursue cases involving racial violence against Blacks. [5] [8]
In November 2021, Distributed Denial of Secrets released 1.8 terabytes of police helicopter surveillance footage from the Dallas Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol. [9] [10] According to Wired, the footage showed helicopters capturing everything from cars lined up at a drive-through, and people standing in their yards and on the street. [9] Non-profit advocacy group Fight for the Future called the leak "a crystal-clear example of why mass surveillance makes our society less safe, not more safe." [9]
According to The Officer Down Memorial Page, between 1892 and 2016, 84 members of the Dallas Police Department died in the line of duty. The best-known instance was the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit by Lee Harvey Oswald, approximately 40 minutes after Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
Other notable deaths include the murder of Officer Robert W. Wood on November 28, 1976, which was later examined in Errol Morris' documentary, The Thin Blue Line . [11] Additionally, Senior Corporal Victor Lozada, a motorcycle officer in the Traffic Division, was killed on February 22, 2008, while serving as part of an escort to Senator Hillary Clinton's motorcade near downtown Dallas for a presidential campaign event; Senior Corporal Lozada's funeral was attended by over 4,500 police officers as well as Senator Clinton. [12] On January 6, 2009, Senior Corporal Norman Smith, an 18-year veteran, was shot and killed while attempting to serve an arrest warrant. [13]
The 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers is the deadliest single incident for law enforcement officers in the U.S. since the September 11 attacks in 2001. On July 7, 2016, Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and fired upon a group of Dallas Police Department (DPD) and Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) officers, killing five officers and injuring nine others. Two civilians were also wounded. The shooting happened at the end of a protest against the police killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.
Early in the morning of July 24, 1973, Dallas police officers Darrell L. Cain and Roy Arnold were investigating a burglary, from a vending machine, of eight dollars. Two children, twelve-year-old Santos Rodriguez and thirteen-year-old David Rodriguez were taken from their home and brought to the scene of the crime. [14] In an attempt to frighten Santos into confessing, Officer Cain, thinking he had emptied his service revolver of all its ammunition, aimed it at the boy and pulled the trigger twice. The second time, the gun discharged killing Santos, who was still handcuffed. [15] Cain was found guilty of murder by a jury in November 1973 and sentenced to five years in prison. He served half of it. [16] The City of Dallas apologized to the Rodriguez family forty years later. [17]
On March 18, 2009, NFL player Ryan Moats's mother-in-law, Jonetta Collinsworth, died from breast cancer. Moats, his wife Tamisha (Collinsworth's daughter) and other family members rushed to Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, Texas, when they were informed that she was close to death. After driving through a red light, [18] Moats was stopped by police officer Robert Powell who delayed him for more than 10 minutes outside the hospital's emergency room, allowing the rest of the family to leave, even after Moats's ordeal was corroborated by a nurse in the hospital to Powell. Powell even drew his gun at Moats during the incident. By the time Moats reached Collinsworth, she had died. Moats questioned whether race could have played a factor in the interaction due to the nature and tone of the officer's remarks to the family; When asked if he felt if Officer Powell be fired, Moats said, "I really don't know. All I know is what he did was wrong. I mean, he stole a moment away from me that I can never get back. I'm really not the judge on what should happen to him. I think maybe his superiors and the Dallas police should handle what should happen to him." [19] Officer Powell issued an apology to Moats. Police officials investigated Powell's actions; he was placed on administrative leave but later resigned from the department. [18] [20] [21] [22] After Moats' incident with Officer Powell, former Cowboy Zach Thomas acknowledged that Powell was the same officer who handcuffed and jailed his wife Maritza after she was pulled over for making an illegal u-turn in July 2008. [23]
Beginning on December 31, 2001, the local ABC-affiliate, WFAA, began broadcasting a series of investigative reports alleging that hundreds of pounds of cocaine and methamphetamine seized by undercover officers of the DPD Narcotics Division during 2001 were actually not illegal substances. [24] The subsequent "fake drug" scandal led to dismissal of over 80 drug cases by the Dallas County District Attorney's office, multiple investigations, the indictment of three current or former DPD narcotics officers, the release of defendants (many whom were falsely accused Mexican immigrants) who had pleaded guilty to cases where later investigation revealed no illegal drugs were involved and the prosecution of multiple informants that had been used to make cases that were subsequently dismissed. [24] In 2003, the Dallas City Manager fired Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton, due in part for his department's lack of oversight of the Narcotics Dept. officers involved in these fake drug arrests. He sued the City of Dallas over that firing but his case was dismissed with prejudice in 2005. Many of the 25 victims of the false arrests and wrongful prosecution won Federal Civil Rights Violations lawsuit settlements and actual jury case awards against the City of Dallas. One attorney who sued the city on behalf of what was a large percentage of Mexican immigrants who spoke little English, said, "the total cost could climb to as much as $8 million once all 25 cases are resolved." [25] [26]
In December 2009, Dallas police officers received word that two white men were fighting in the downtown area. Failing to locate the described men, Officer Matthew Antkowiak discovered a black man crossing the street and made a pedestrian stop of him which turned into a scuffle. Other officers then joined in. The man, Ronald Jones, ended up spending fourteen months in jail on various charges. When Jones’ defense attorney viewed video tapes of the beating, he believed that the police reports had been falsified. The City contended that while the reports were inaccurate and incomplete, this was attributed in part to Officer Antkowiak's inability to accurately relate the events to the officer that did the actual report (Officer Antkowiak claimed to have suffered a closed-head injury during the incident that aggravated a prior confirmed injury). Mr. Jones was released and in March 2014 awarded $1.1 million by the city to settle the matter. Officer Antkowiak retired on an unrelated medical claim and is no longer employed in law enforcement. He has set up a private firm to train policemen. No other disciplinary action was taken against any official. [27]
On August 10, 2016, Dallas Police killed Tony Timpa, a 32-year-old resident who had called 911 for aid, telling the dispatcher that he had schizophrenia and depression but not taken his prescription medication. Timpa was already handcuffed when a group of officers restrained him on the ground while he squirmed, repeatedly crying out, "You're gonna kill me!". After he fell unconscious, the officers assumed he was asleep and, rather than confirm that he was breathing or feel for a pulse, joked about waking him up for school and making him breakfast. They kept him prone on grass for nearly 14 minutes and zip-tied his legs together, one pressing his knee into Timpa's back. One of the paramedics called to the scene administered the sedative Versed. The responders began to panic only as they loaded Timpa's body onto a gurney, one exclaiming, "He didn’t just die down there, did he?" Timpa died within 20 minutes of police officers' arrival, of "cocaine and the stress associated with physical restraint", according to his autopsy. [28] It took over three years for footage of the incident to be released. The footage contradicted claims by Dallas Police that Timpa was aggressive. [29] [30] The officers involved were Sgt. Kevin Mansell and Officers Danny Vasquez and Dustin Dillard. [31] Criminal charges against three officers were dropped in March 2019 and they returned to active duty. [32]
On September 6, 2018, Dallas patrol officer Amber Guyger, in uniform but off duty after a daylong shift, [33] entered the apartment of Botham Jean and shot and killed him. Guyger said that she had entered the apartment believing it was her own and shot Jean believing he was a burglar. [34] [35] She then called 911. Jean was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died from his wound. The investigation was taken over by the Texas Rangers, who were responsible for Guyger's arrest three days later. [36] Guyger was charged with manslaughter, a 2nd degree felony in Texas, which carries a sentence of 2 to 20 years in a state prison and/or a fine not to exceed $10,000. [37] On September 24, Guyger was terminated from the police force, after being placed on administrative leave since the shooting. [38]
Following the shooting, an attorney representing Jean's family accused the Dallas police department of smearing Jean's reputation. [39] The lawyers also disputed the account of the incident that Guyger told officials, which was recorded in the arrest warrant affidavit, and asserted that two independent witnesses had come forward to give recollections that conflict with Guyger's account. [40]
On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on murder charges by a Dallas County grand jury. [41]
On September 22, 2019, the day before the trial began, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot took part in an interview regarding the trial in spite of a gag order issued by Judge Tammy Kemp in January of that year. After questioning jurors, who reported that they had not seen the interview or other media coverage of the trial, Kemp denied the defense's motion for a mistrial, and sequestered the jury. [42]
On October 1, 2019, Guyger was found guilty of murder. [43]
On October 2, 2019, Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison. [44] [45]
On October 5, it was revealed that Joshua Brown, a key witness for the prosecution, was killed after being shot more than once the previous night. [46] Despite speculation about the motive behind Brown's killing, the slaying had nothing to do with the Jean case. [47]
Bryan Riser was a former 13-year veteran on the Dallas police force. He was arrested on March 4, 2021, for the two unconnected murders of Liza Saenz and Albert Douglas in 2017. [48] [49] Riser was charged with two counts of capital murder. [50] [51] One of the men connected with the murder of Saenz told police that he and Riser had been connected with burglaries and that Riser had paid him and others [52] $3,500 to kidnap and kill Albert Douglas, then later promised $6,000 to kill Saenz. [53] [54]
Rank | Insignia |
---|---|
Chief | |
Executive Assistant Chief | |
Assistant Chief | |
Deputy Chief | |
Major | |
Captain | |
Lieutenant | |
Sergeant | |
Senior Corporal | |
Police Officer |
Members of the department who are captains and below are protected by the city's civil service system with promotion based on the results of competitive examinations. Senior corporals typically are officers who serve either as field training officers in the Patrol Division or who serve as detectives in one of the department's investigative units. The rank of captain has not been in use since 1992, however, those who were captains were allowed to keep it as well as those who were demoted from any chief position, as chiefs once demoted must retain their last civil service rank. There is currently only one captain remaining as of 2018. Majors, deputy chiefs and assistant chiefs are appointed by the chief of police without examination and do not hold civil service protection for these ranks. Division commander and bureau commander are non-civil-service titles based on assignments. Members may hold both assignment titles and civil service or appointive ranks. On October 4, 2012, Chief David Brown created a new major rank in between captain and deputy chief. [55]
Breakdown of the makeup of the rank and file of DPD as of 2016: [56]
Gender | 2008 | 2016 |
---|---|---|
Male | 83% | 81% |
Female | 17% | 19% |
Race/Ethnicity | 2008 | 2016 |
---|---|---|
White | 57% | 50% |
African American | 24% | 26% |
Hispanic | 16% | 21% |
Other | 0% | 0% |
Asian/Pacific Islander | 1% | 2% |
American Indian/Alaskan | 1% | 1% |
Ryan Moats is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft.
The Delta Police Department (DPD) is the police force for the City of Delta, British Columbia, a suburban community in Metro Vancouver with a population of 112,365. As of 2024, the Delta Police Department has an authorized strength of 205 sworn members and 85 civilian support staff, and an operating budget of $54,564,000.
The Denver Police Department (DPD) is the full service police department jointly for the City and County of Denver, Colorado, which provides police services to the entire county, including Denver International Airport, and may provide contractual security police service to special districts within the county. The police department is within the Denver Department of Public Safety, which also includes the Denver Sheriff Department and Denver Fire Department. The DPD was established in 1859.
The Detroit Police Department (DPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1865, it has nearly 2,500 officers, making it the largest law enforcement organization in the state.
David O'Neal Brown is an American police officer who served as the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department from 2020 to 2023. He was the chief of the Dallas Police Department from 2010 to 2016. He has received praised by some for his reforms designed to reduce violent confrontations between police officers and the community and increase the department's accountability and transparency. He has also been criticized by the local police union for the methods of implementation of some of his policies.
In 2013, two prosecutors and a prosecutor's wife were murdered in Kaufman County, Texas. The case gained national attention in the United States due to speculation that the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang was responsible, but this was later found to be untrue. Eric Lyle Williams, a former lawyer and justice of the peace whose theft case was prosecuted by two of the victims, was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death for two of the murders. He was also charged with the murder of prosecutor Mark Hasse, but a decision was made not to prosecute him as he had already received a death sentence for the other murders. His wife, Kimberly Irene "Kim" Williams, was tried separately, and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Yaser Abdel Said is an Egyptian-American convicted murderer. For 12 years, Said evaded arrest for the January 1, 2008, fatal shootings of his two daughters, whose bodies were found in his abandoned taxi cab in Irving, Texas. Said went into hiding after the killings. He remained a fugitive from law enforcement for 12 years, and for six of those years was on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.
The Dallas Police Association is the largest and oldest police union for sworn members of the Dallas Police Force in Dallas, Texas. The Dallas Police Association also has a musical choir.
On May 17, 2015, in Waco, Texas, United States, a shootout erupted at a Twin Peaks restaurant where more than 200 persons, including members from motorcycle clubs that included the Bandidos, Cossacks, and allies, had gathered for a meeting about political rights for motorcyclists. Law enforcement, which included 18 Waco Police Department officers and four Texas Highway Patrol troopers, had gathered to monitor the restaurant and meeting from outside, and, according to police, "returned fire after being shot at". Nine bikers were killed, 18 others wounded or injured, and 177 individuals were ultimately arrested and initially detained in connection with the shootout, most for alleged participation in organized crime. According to The New York Times, "the response by prosecutors was widely criticized as brazen overreach". According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, the shootout led to a "four-year prosecutorial fiasco that resulted in zero convictions."
Irma Carrillo Ramirez is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She previously served as a United States magistrate judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas from 2002 to 2023. She is a former nominee to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
On January 18, 2016, Daniel Leetin Shaver of Granbury, Texas, was fatally shot by police officer Philip Brailsford in the hallway of a La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel in Mesa, Arizona. Police were responding to a report that a rifle had been pointed out of the window of Shaver's hotel room.
On July 7, 2016, Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and shot police officers in Dallas, Texas, killing five, injuring nine others, and wounding two civilians. Johnson, a 25-year-old Army Reserve Afghan War veteran, was angry over police shootings of black men. He shot the officers at the end of a protest against the recent killings by police of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.
On April 29, 2017, Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old African-American boy, was murdered by police officer Roy Oliver in Balch Springs, Texas, within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Edwards was shot in the back of the head while riding in the front passenger's seat of a vehicle driving away from officers that attempted to stop it. He was unarmed during the encounter.
On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was murdered in Dallas, Texas, by off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger, who entered Jean's apartment and fatally shot him. Guyger, who said that she had entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own and believed Jean to be a burglar, was initially charged with manslaughter. The absence of a murder charge led to protests and accusations of racial bias because Jean—an unarmed black man—was killed in his own home by a white off-duty officer who had apparently disregarded police protocols. On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a charge of murder. On October 1, 2019, she was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment the following day. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021.
Guyger is a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, a 28-year-old woman, was fatally shot inside her home by a police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, in the early morning of October 12, 2019. Police arrived at her home after a neighbor called a non-emergency number, stating that Jefferson's front door was open. Police body camera footage showed officers walking outside the home with flashlights for a few minutes then one officer yells, "Put your hands up! Show me your hands!", while discharging his weapon through a window. Police found a handgun near Jefferson's body, which according to her eight-year-old nephew, she was pointing toward the window before being shot. On October 14, 2019, Officer Aaron Dean, the shooter, resigned from the Fort Worth Police Department and was arrested on a murder charge. On December 20, 2019, Dean was indicted for murder. Jefferson was black and the officer who shot her is white, prompting news outlets to compare Jefferson's shooting to the September 2018 murder of Botham Jean in nearby Dallas.
On August 10, 2016, Anthony "Tony" Allen Timpa, a 32-year-old, unarmed white man, was murdered in Dallas, Texas by police officer Dustin Dillard. Officers had responded to a call by Timpa requesting aid for a mental breakdown due to the fact that he had not taken his prescription medication for schizophrenia and depression. Dillard pushed his body weight onto Timpa on the ground for around 14 minutes after he was already restrained, and officers ignored pleas from Timpa that he was in pain and was afraid he was going to die. Timpa's death was ruled a homicide due to "the stress of being restrained and extreme physical exertion" and toxic effects of previous cocaine use.
Jose Sifuentes is an American serial killer who abducted, raped, and strangled three women in Dallas, Texas, from 1998 to 2003. He was identified as a suspect after the final murder and was arrested, but after posting bail he fled to Mexico and spent the next sixteen years as a fugitive. In 2019, the FBI apprehended him, and he was extradited to the United States the following year. He pleaded guilty to each murder in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)