On June 8, 1988, the Dallas City Council passed an ordinance creating the Dallas Citizens Review Board and adopted proposals for improvement of the Police Department. The second proposed improvement for the Police Department was “the city manager will increase the total number of police officers serving the city by at least 150 per year for the next four years and, thereafter, will maintain a ratio of at least three police officers per one thousand citizens to properly serve the needs of the city, but reserves the flexibility to meet those service requirements by using new policies and programs.”
In 2001 we have 2.4 officers per one thousand. We do not have enough police officers available to answer calls in Dallas.
The Police Department has a goal of an emergency response time of no greater than 8 minutes. They will tell you we have an emergency response time of 8.02 minutes citywide. Dallas has six police divisions. Emergency response time out of North Central averages 8.76 minutes, Northeast 8.70, and Southeast 8.44. District 10 is served out of Northeast.
What concerns me also is that non-critical response time is more than 85 minutes out of Northeast and more than 87 minutes out of Southeast. There are no goals for non-critical response times. To meet the ordinance passed in 1988, we need an additional 635 officers budgeted. We only have 2,931 sworn positions budgeted in this years budget for the Police Department. With the latest census we should have 3,566 to meet the city ordinance establishing three per thousand.
I am writing this on June 1, and within the next couple of weeks the Police Department is going to reveal a short-term solution to getting more officers on the street. The long-term solution is going to involve the voters.
It has been more than 15 years since we added a new police division. The Census 2000 showed Dallas growing by 180,000 people with an additional 11,000 being added last year. That is an increase of more than 19 percent since 1990, but we have only increased police strength by 5 percent. We have limited room at each of the existing police substations, so we must consider a new division.
The Dallas City Council will be working on a bond issue for next year, and we must include funding for this in that proposal. If included and approved by the voters, it would probably take three or four more years to get it off the ground. This would give us time to increase the number of officers in each of the upcoming years so that when it is completed, you could maintain current strength at the current six divisions but decrease the amount of territory covered.
There are a lot of demands on our budget dollars, but I know of none more important than proper police protection.
