The Dallas police oversight board announced Tuesday that it plans to propose several changes to the police department’s internal investigative practices to bring them in line with Department of Justice standards.
Board members also said they want police Chief Eddie García to explain why his department says its $900,000 early warning system, designed to track problem officers, is not being used nearly two years after it was supposed to be up and running.
The Community Police Oversight Board discussed the issues during its monthly meeting this week in response to a Dallas Morning News investigation in July into the police department’s handling of brutality cases and its impact on people of color.
The first installment of The News’ Black & Blue series revealed that at least eight of the department’s internal investigative practices lag behind federal guidelines. Ten substandard excessive force inquiries into former Officer Christopher Hess allowed him to stay on patrol until he fatally shot Genevive Dawes in 2017, violating multiple policies, The News found.
Board vice chairman Jose Rivas said the story inspired him to draft new policies for internal investigations. He hopes the board can begin reviewing them next month. He and others called specific attention to the department’s practice of not requiring internal affairs detectives to have investigative experience and cited failures to examine patterns in the complaint histories of accused officers.
“I read the article in The Dallas Morning News and I was thinking to myself ‘how could this have happened?’ ” Rivas told board members. “How [Hess] could stay on the force is mind-boggling to me.’’
Rivas made his remarks after the board played a short video documentary produced by The News as part of its series. Dash-cam footage obtained by The News captured Hess punching, dragging and kneeing Terry Morris, a driver he had pulled over in 2014. Experts characterized the beating as “torture.’’ Hess’ partner at the scene, Jason Crow, did not intervene. Crow was later promoted to sergeant.
Hess and Crow did not respond to interview requests for this story. Both had previously declined to comment on The News’ findings. Chief García did not respond to our request for comment about the oversight board’s actions. His spokesperson, Kristin Lowman, however, offered some insight into the police department’s early warning system.
Garcia became police chief in 2021, four years after Hess had been dismissed from the force.
In 2016, after police learned of the video of Morris’ beating, Hess and Crow were cleared and continued to work patrol. Months later, Hess killed Dawes and was fired. For six years, the city has defended Hess against a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by the Dawes family. In recent months, Mayor Eric Johnson, City Manager T.C. Broadnax, council members and the city’s attorneys have declined to comment on The News’ findings, citing litigation.
In brief remarks to The News’ editorial board last week, Broadnax said he was not up to speed on the Justice Department standards but said he believed Chief García and his team would be open to improvements.
“We’re going to be open to things that actually are relevant and specific to what we need to be doing here,’’ Broadnax said. He added that the federal standards for internal investigations are not mandates but guidelines.
Two weeks ago, oversight board member Brandon Friedman called for his colleagues to tackle the issue, saying he could see no reason why Dallas, as the ninth largest city in the nation, should not meet the highest standards. “Anyone who opposes raising standards of professionalism for law enforcement, I gotta ask: Why?’’ Friedman said.
During Tuesday’s oversight board meeting, member Jonathan Maples said the video of Morris’ beating reflected a disturbing dynamic found in some of Dallas’ most egregious police encounters in the last 50 years. Those officers also had histories of violence and were not stopped by their partners or the department until they later killed someone. One example: the 1973 murder of Santos Rodriguez by Officer Darrell Cain.
Officer Cain had fatally shot another youth before he shot then-12-year-old Rodriguez, and Cain’s partner did not intervene in the killing of Rodriguez, Maples said.
He said he hopes the city adopts policy changes soon.
Board member Deatra Wadsworth said she was concerned that the police department’s early warning system has yet to be activated, according to a department spokesperson. She asked the board’s chairman, Jesuorobo Enobakhare Jr. to ask García for quick answers.
“We’ve got this $900,000 system that’s not being used?’’ Wadsworth said.
A representative for Benchmark Analytics, which sold the system to the city, told The News in February that the system was operating. Lowman, the police spokeswoman, told The News in May that the system was not running and declined to comment further.
Asked on Wednesday to respond to the oversight board’s concerns, Lowman said the system is “in beta testing” but declined to elaborate.
Board members, who review the department’s internal affairs investigations, criticized its handling of a recent complaint from a disabled military veteran who said officers working an off-duty security job denied him access to a restaurant restroom in June.
The department found the officers did not violate policy. The board members’ review of the body-cam footage showed the officers mocking the man after he left the restaurant. They faulted police for not fully investigating the complaint and authorized police monitor Tonya McClary to investigate the incident.
Civil rights leaders have blasted city officials for staying mum about The News’ investigation. Two weeks ago, members of a half-dozen victim-advocacy organizations urged them to break their silence.
City council members have to approve board recommendations before they become policy.
“We need to get council members involved because that’s the only way we’re going to make changes in this regard,” said Christa Sanford, an oversight board member.’
At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, members did not comment when John Fullinwider, co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, asked them to bring police practices and policies up to federal standards.
“Over the decades I think I can say my conscience is always shocked, but I am no longer surprised by police misconduct,’’ Fullinwider said. He mentioned five officers, including Hess, who over the last five decades have had histories of violence before they fatally shot someone.
“This pattern should be uncovered by internal investigations,’’ he said. “But it is not, and when we recently read that these practices are not up to the standards and guidelines of the Department of Justice, this is something the council should pay close attention to.’’
Reporter Kelli Smith contributed to this story.
