Dallas leaders on Friday announced new policies aimed at reforming the Dallas Police Department after seven days of protests around the country over the death of George Floyd, a black man killed when a white Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.
The city said it would formally ban chokeholds and any force intended to restrict a person’s airway; implement by June 12 a policy to warn before shooting; and create guidelines to release body cam and dashcam video of critical incidents.
Earlier, the Police Department said it had implemented a policy requiring officers to intervene in any situation where force is applied inappropriately or is no longer required.
Before this week, the department document that outlines proper protocols for essentially any occurrence — from how to wrangle an escaped zoo animal to what type of facial hair is permitted — did not include a ban on chokeholds or other neck restraints. Nor did it say officers have a “duty to intervene.”
The policies will now appear in the department’s general orders, according to a memo from City Manager T.C. Broadnax.
“Addressing systematic issues and policing practices, which have led to unrest and racial division within our community, have the greatest potential to transform and unite our city,” he wrote.
But the changes announced Friday lag behind those already implemented in other North Texas law enforcement agencies.
The Fort Worth Police Department has banned chokeholds since 1991 unless deadly force is justified. The Plano department also bans any neck restraint unless lives are at risk.
The changes announced Friday come four years after Tony Timpa, a white man, died in August 2016 after several Dallas police officers handcuffed him and pinned him to the ground while he screamed for his life. One officer had his knee in Timpa’s back for more than 13 minutes. They laughed and mocked him after he became unresponsive, joking that he was going to be late for school.
Timpa’s mother, Vicki Timpa, had already expected that Friday would be a hard day — it would have been her son’s 36th birthday. But seeing local leaders focusing on Floyd’s death hurt her. She said she felt as if her son’s death had been forgotten.
“They picked my son’s birthday to honor someone who was murdered just like my son. They all know they killed my son,” said Timpa, sobbing in an interview Friday.
She has a federal lawsuit pending against the city.
As law enforcement agencies around the country reexamine practices in light of Floyd’s death — Minneapolis police banned chokeholds Friday — advocates are calling for leaders to implement reforms locally.
But activists called the changes in Dallas inadequate.
The largest police union, the Dallas Police Association, said many policies already call for best practices, which are expected of officers.
Association President Mike Mata said the formal policies are redundant, arguing that his officers do not use chokeholds and will intervene when they see misconduct.
“If Chief Hall feels she needs to make a policy in writing, I’m not against that,” said Mata, who defended the actions of the officers involved in Timpa’s death.
The Dallas policies do not create a legal avenue to prosecute officers who commit misconduct, said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a criminal law professor at the University of Houston. She applauded the department for reviewing its practices and committing to change.
Sara Mokuria, co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, said that she was disappointed in the announcement and that the changes were “grossly inadequate.”
“We want a divestment of police and investment into our communities,” Mokuria said. “We want alternatives to policing.”
Chokeholds, use of force
On Friday, Broadnax announced the Dallas department would formalize the ban on chokeholds in its general orders. The ban echoes a memo issued by then-Police Chief David Kunkle in August 2004.
In that memo, Kunkle stated the “lateral vascular neck restraint” was no longer authorized and that recruits would not be taught the technique. A police spokesman did not say whether everyone hired since 2004 had been given this document or how new officers were made aware of the chokehold ban.
The memo came several months after a Dallas police officer put a 23-year-old man in a neck restraint that contributed to his death. Officer Seth Rosenberg used it on Allen Simpson after a car and foot chase. The Dallas County medical examiner ruled that Simpson asphyxiated from neck compression, according to The Dallas Morning News archives.
A grand jury did not indict Rosenberg, but the city offered to pay Simpson’s family $800,000 in 2005.
Body and dash camera video
When it comes to police shooting suspects or a situation involving multiple injuries or deaths, the Police Department does not have a policy on how to release body and dash camera video.
The details of investigations into in-custody deaths like those of Timpa and Diamond Ross, who died of a PCP overdose in 2018, have taken years to be made public. In general, police — by law — may refuse to make public any information, including video, from an ongoing investigation. But the law doesn’t prohibit them from releasing the information.
In Ross’ case, videos showed her repeatedly asking officers for help as she was placed in a police car and taken to jail. It was a year before the public learned about Ross’ death.
The video in the Timpa case was released only after nearly three years and legal intervention by The Dallas Morning News.
The Police Department pledged to implement by the end of June a policy on releasing videos from its most serious encounters.
Warn before shooting
Dallas police also pledged to implement a “warning before shooting” policy by the end of next week. The department did not provide details on that policy.
Typically, such policies require officers to give some sort of spoken command before firing. The Plano police policy on shootings says that a police employee “shall allow an individual time and opportunity to submit to verbal commands before force is used.”
Fort Worth police Officer Aaron Dean did not give any warning before he shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson through a window in October while making a welfare check at a house about 2:30 a.m. A neighbor had called, concerned that doors were open and lights on. Jefferson had been playing video games with her nephew. He later said she had heard a noise outside, gotten her gun and aimed it at a window, an arrest warrant affidavit says.
Dean resigned and has been charged with murder. The department is currently working to clarify its policy, Captain Mark A. Barthen said in an email.
Duty to intervene
Dallas police implemented a new order that formally requires officers stop someone, or attempt to intervene, “when force is being inappropriately applied or is no longer required.”
Police departments in Plano, Fort Worth, Mesquite, Frisco and across the country already have similar “duty to intervene” policies.
The Dallas police code of conduct already bans the use of unnecessary or inappropriate force. And in general, officers are already expected to step in if they witness wrongdoing.
“To me, it’s a little surprising that you don’t already have at least an ethical obligation” to intervene, said Thompson, the criminal law professor at the University of Houston.
But there could be legal reasons to implement a policy like this, she explained. The policy may create a more formal path to discipline for a violator or be required as a part of the officers’ union contract.
Calls to adopt “duty to intervene” policies have gained momentum as protests over police violence have gripped the nation. Other departments, such as North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, have already implemented such orders.
The Dallas department did not immediately say whether an officer could be punished for not intervening.
In announcing the change, a police news release said the revision was made to ensure what happened to Floyd “does not happen again,” noting that the three other officers in that case did not step in.
“Had the officers intervened," the release said, “the outcome might have been different.”
Staff writer Hayat Norimine contributed to this report.
CORRECTION, 7:00 a.m., June 6, 2020: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the date of Tony Timpa’s death. He died in August 2016.
