A Dallas coalition of community activists and faith leaders is demanding that city and county officials use their “moral imagination” to immediately adopt policies that reverse generations of injustice.
The list of 10 demands comes amid weeks of protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who died after a white police office knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes.
But the coalition’s goals are fueled by decades of unchecked police brutality and systemic racism that has made Dallas home to some of the worst racial inequities in the nation. And it is one of several efforts across the country calling on governments to rethink the role of police and to invest some of police departments’ budgets into programs to end poverty and other drivers of crime.
Dubbed 10 New Directions for Public Safety and Positive Community Change, the demands fall into one of two categories, the authors say: reprioritizing city and county money currently earmarked for public safety and increasing transparency and accountability.
Among the recommendations in the first pail: hiring mental health professionals to respond to emergencies and creating a city-county task force of community members to identify programs that can lift black and Latino residents out of poverty rather than locking them up.
The second group of suggestions aimed at police accountability includes prohibiting an officer from shooting at a person running away, benching officers accused of using deadly force until after a grand jury can investigate, and ending the county’s contract with the federal immigration department.
“We are striving for a culture of care over a culture of harm and surveillance and incarceration,” said Kristian Hernandez, a member of the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America and co-author of the list. “A lot of what we call public safety is merely responding to crime — not preventing it. Dallas has shown it’s a place where there is a lot of racial and economic inequities — we can’t expect to police our way through that.”
Although the memo was published earlier this month, the recommendations have been shared for years. They have received little consideration at City Hall, activists say.
“This wasn’t eight people in the room deciding what Dallas needs to be better,” Hernandez said. “It’s a compendium of everything we’ve seen and dealt with.”
Despite the fertile moment, it’s unclear how seriously city and county officials will take these recommendations.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, the county’s chief executive, has promised to start the suggested task force.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson declined to be interviewed. His spokesman, Tristan Hallman, said Johnson is not interested in starting another task force. Rather, he wants the City Council’s public safety committee and the Community Police Oversight Board to lead the discussion, Hallman said.
Hallman noted that some of the memo’s ideas are already in place or under consideration. For instance, Dallas police this month issued a policy that requires officers to intervene if they believe someone is using excessive force.
“Some of these issues, particularly relating to the funding of social services, will undoubtedly be considered in the city’s upcoming budget discussions,” Hallman said in a statement.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax, who is appointed by the council and runs Dallas’ day-to-day operations, signaled that he is open to implementing some of the coalition’s recommendations as he drafts a budget later this year. He also has issued his own set of policy suggestions that include expanding the Right Care Program, which pairs police officers with social workers and counselors to respond to 911 calls.
Complicating any change is the fact that Dallas is expected to face massive budget cuts in the coming years due to a drop in sales tax from the economic shutdown that followed the coronavirus pandemic.
“There is an awakening of just the basic understanding that we have to do better and we have to do things differently,” he said. “I want it to be done while I’m in this city. We have to be the ones who solve this.”
Authors of the memo — almost all black and brown Dallasites — say they put the ideas together to provide elected officials a clear and concise path. And yet, most are skeptical change can take hold.
“I’ve been in Dallas long enough to know that injustice can be snatched from the hands of justice very quickly,” said the Rev. Michael Waters, one of the authors. “It’s encouraging so many City Council persons have vocalized supporting this reimagination, but the reality is nothing will be done until the final vote is carried. It’s my hope that these members won’t allow outside pressures to change what they know in their hearts are true.”
‘We’ve been at the center’
As protests against police brutality and racism quickly gained momentum the last week of May, Jenkins, aided by Imam Omar Suleiman and the Rev. Freddie Haynes, pulled together a digital town hall with community activists and law enforcement officials, including Broadnax, Police Chief U. Reneé Hall and District Attorney John Creuzot.
Among the activists were Sara Mokuria from Mothers Against Police Brutality, Brittany White from Faith in Action, and Maria Yolisma Garcia of the North Texas Dream Team.
Despite stretching more than two hours, the conversation broadcast on Facebook wasn’t finished. Mokuria, exasperated by the lack of a commitment to meaningful change from Hall and Broadnax, volunteered to put the requests in writing.
John Fullinwider, a co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality and a 43-year veteran of community activism in Dallas, said the goal of the document was to be concise so policymakers would read it. And the suggested policies had to be “doable.”
In Dallas, the modern call for police reform traces back to the 1970s when a city cop killed two unarmed young people — Michael Morehead, who was black, and Santos Rodriguez, who was Latino. In the 1980s, the city hosted a congressional hearing on police violence.
“I would say the moment nationally feels different,” Fullinwider said. “But I want to say the history of police brutality in Dallas is high-flown rhetoric promising change and ongoing relentless brutality.”
No official tally exists of the number of people killed by Dallas police. Dallas only tracks police shootings and does not account for people who may have been killed by other methods — for example, Tony Timpa, who died by asphyxiation. The attorney general tracks deaths in custody but only goes back to 2005.
Mothers Against Police Brutality estimates Dallas police shot and killed 75 people between 2003 and 2017. Police shot and injured 72 more. Eighteen percent of the people they shot at were unarmed, according to city data.
As open as Broadnax appears to be to the group’s demands, he has pointed out that the City Council has consistently called for more police. The current budget allocated $517 million for the department. City officials celebrated the sum after the budget passed unanimously. They used the money to hire more cops and pay them higher salaries.
Like most local governments, the Dallas Police Department is the single largest line item in the city’s discretionary budget. Coupled with Dallas Fire-Rescue and municipal courts, every dollar the city collects from property taxes goes toward public safety.
The coalition contends Dallas has not received a good return on investment. Crime is still high despite more police officers. A different approach is needed to curb the effects of poverty by providing housing assistance, job training and neighborhood-specific programs, such as a shuttle for seniors, they say.
“There is an idea that Dallas has not been a part of these brutalities when in reality we’ve been at the center,” Waters said. “Dallas doesn’t have to remain this way. We can be much greater. But it’s not going to happen with forums and feel-good basketball games.
“Someone in power is going to have to do something different.”
‘It may not be practical’
If there isn’t a rush to embrace these demands in their entirety, there is at least a new openness among city leaders to rethink previously held convictions — even among the police themselves.
Senior Cpl. Terrance Hopkins, a 30-year department veteran and president of Dallas’ Black Police Association, said he welcomes mental health experts to take over some emergency calls.
“Mental health — that’s something we never should have been responding to,” he said, adding that more resources for young Dallasites would also garner his support. “We should do whatever we need to do as a city to make sure there are resources available for kids to spend their idle time.”
Hopkins, however, stopped short of saying the department needs a complete overhaul. He prefers leaders focus on gathering more data to identify police officers who are contributing to racial disparities.
Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Texas at Dallas, echoed Hopkins, saying: “Some things make sense. Some things are probably going to be nonstarters. And some things have already been started and implemented.”
Piquero pointed to work he did on a committee established by the mayor last year to identify non-police solutions to reducing crime. That committee delivered its report in January, suggesting the city should clean up abandoned buildings and lots, invest in outdoor lighting and school programs that focus on kids, particularly in high-crime areas.
Piquero also raised questions about the proposed changes to how officers use force. One idea from the group is that officers should be limited to firing only one round of ammunition before “reassessing” whether additional rounds are needed.
“I’m not saying it’s a bad idea,” he said. “I’m saying it may not be practical.”
There are those, too, who wholeheartedly support the plan but see it only as a half measure.
Niecee X, a co-director at The House of Rebirth, which provides housing and other assistance to black transgender women, said they believe in the total abolition of the police department. Niecee is nonbinary, meaning they do not identify as strictly male or female and use gender-neutral pronouns.
“We have to start looking for sustainable and systematic changes. I hope by reallocating budgets to mental health, housing and jobs will lead to a better quality of life for all black lives,” they said. But “the work of having a healthy society is the work of abolishing these institutions that are historically racist, sexist, and transphobic.”
In politics here and across the country, politicians often look to business leaders and donors for cues before making meaningful policy shifts. While major corporations have taken swift steps to align themselves with the Black Lives Matter movement, Dallas business leaders are cautiously weighing in.
Dale Petroskey, president and CEO of the Dallas Regional Chamber, said his association has formed a new diversity, equity and inclusion committee that will evaluate a variety of policy positions to champion.
“As we form this committee, and discuss its scope, these 10 policy proposals will be part of the conversation,” he said in a statement.
The Dallas Citizens Council, one of the most influential business associations in the city, did not respond to an interview request.
While a majority of the City Council has said it’s prepared to rethink policing in Dallas, the range of interest in the policies is unclear. The Dallas Morning News asked all 14 members to share their opinions of the document. Only two — Adam McGough and Casey Thomas — responded.
McGough, the deputy mayor pro tem who represents northeast Dallas, said he’s worried about removing too many officers from the streets, especially as crime is high.
“We have to have a better option before we nix what already exists,” he said. However, he added: “Everything is on the table.”
Thomas, who represents southwest Dallas, has met with some of the authors and said he is interested in pursuing several of their recommendations.
“There is momentum to reimagine public safety,” he said. “The mood of the country is different. This is the moment.”
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10 new directions for public safety in Dallas
A coalition of community activists and faith leaders have written a list of 10 policy changes they want city and county officials to implement in order to improve the lives of black and brown residents and end police violence. The list was published by Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins on social media. The three-page document has been edited and condensed for space.
- The city and county shall create a team of counselors and social workers to act as first responders to mental health emergencies.
- The city and county shall create a task force to identify alternatives to non-police interventions and long-term investments that reduce poverty and other drivers of crime.
- The city and county shall end their contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
- Dallas police must adopt specific policies restricting the use of deadly force, such as prohibiting a police officer from shooting suspects if they are running away or in their car.
- Dallas police must remove from patrol any officer under investigation for use of deadly force incident until the investigation is complete, including review by a grand jury.
- Police and the district attorney must review all fatal police shootings since 2000 and make recommendations for policy interventions that could have prevented the shooting, as well as recommending charges for any unlawful police activity uncovered.
- Police shall fire or furlough officers whose testimony is not credible enough to be used by prosecutors in court or have multiple complaints of excessive force.
- Dallas police and sheriff departments shall create, review and reinforce duty to intervene and duty to render aid policies.
- The sheriff’s department shall release from jail people who are considered a high-at-risk population for contracting COVID-19, commit to reducing the jail population and follow CDC guidelines.
- Dallas police and the sheriff department must establish and maintain relationships with disenfranchised communities to better understand their safety needs and cultures.
Update: This story has been updated to clarify that the police department is the largest line item in the city’s general fund, or discretionary budget.
