The Dallas Police Department will soon be without a leader as Chief Eddie García will be departing Dallas to become an assistant city manager in Austin.
Garcia was the 30th chief of Dallas PD, and was the first Hispanic person to lead the department. His departure comes after the city went to great lengths to retain him as other cities looked to hire him away.
Garcia had been chief for three and a half years. Information on who the city would name to replace him or when was not immediately available Thursday afternoon.
Garcia was hired in December 2020, after the resignation of former chief U. Reneé Hall, who was the first Black woman to lead the department. Hall’s resignation came after Dallas saw a rise in crime and the department was criticized over how it handled the arrest of 674 protestors following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Prior to Hall, the department was led by David Brown for six years. Brown was chief during the July 7, 2016, ambush in downtown Dallas in which five police officers, including four Dallas PD officers, were killed by a gunman targeting police.
The Dallas Police Department was founded in 1881, at a time when Dallas’s population was less than a tenth of what it is now. Per the department’s website, the force is comprised of over 3,600 sworn officers and over 550 civilian employees, making the department the 9th-largest in the nation.
Dallas’ darkest day
The department will forever be tied to the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Dallas police officers accompanied Kennedy’s motorcade, and the chief at the time, Jesse Curry, was riding in the lead car.
Less than an hour after Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit was killed in Oak Cliff by Oswald as he attempted to evade capture. Following Oswald’s arrest, he himself would be assassinated on Nov. 24, 1963 in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters by nightclub owner Jack Ruby as police were moving him to the county jail. That shooting by Ruby was captured on video.
July 7, 2016
During a protest in downtown Dallas on July 7, 2016, four Dallas police officers and one DART officer were killed by a gunman who was targeting police. Nine others, including seven officers, were injured in the shooting. Police were monitoring a protest in response to the killings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota, which happened days before, when the gunfire erupted.
Just before 9 p.m., the gunman fired a rifle into a crowd containing police and protestors, killing DPD officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol and Patrick Zamarripa. Chaos erupted as people ran for safety and the gunman attempted to gain access to El Centro College.
During this, he shot and killed DART officer Brent Thompson. He then entered El Centro College and took refuge in the second floor. He fired out of the window, killing Sgt. Michael Smith, and then began an hours-long standoff with police that would end after Chief Brown ordered officers to use a remote-controlled robot to explode a bomb near the gunman, which killed him.
During negotiations, police and the gunman exchanged fire. He told police he was angry over the police killings of Black men and wanted to kill white police officers. He also claimed to have planted bombs in the city.
The attack was the deadliest against U.S. law enforcement since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Former chiefs
The two chiefs prior to Hall, Brown and David Kunkle, both had successful tenures as chief. Brown was praised for his response to the July 2016 shooting, and Kunkle oversaw a drop in crime.
The chief prior to Kunkle, Terrell Bolton, is the most recent chief to be fired from the role. After taking the position in 1999, Bolton fired much of the top police staff, many of whom ended up suing. He was fired in 2003, following criticism over hiring practices and a scandal involving people arrested on fake drug charges.
Bolton would later be hired as the police chief of the DeKalb County Police Department in Georgia. He would be fired from that role in 2009.
Mack Vines, chief from 1988 to 1990, was fired after he was indicted on perjury charges. He testified to a special panel about his role in an internal affairs investigation into a police shooting that ended in the termination of an officer. Another Dallas police officers said Vines called him in order to coach the officer on his upcoming testimony.
Vines was later acquitted on the charges.
