A Dallas police program that puts detectives and other nonpatrol officers back on the streets for two weeks has hundreds of officers in an uproar.
Chief David Brown implemented the Community Policing 2.0 this week to increase police presence in the city's highest crime areas and reduce crime. The program puts nonpatrol officers on two-week, in-uniform patrol rotations every six months.
Brown said property crimes, including theft and burglaries, account for 88 percent of the city's crime.
"We want to establish relationships so that we can have an outcome of reducing crime, particularly burglary and theft," he said. "They happen in the daytime predominantly and they happen in the neighborhoods."
But critics of the program say officers who haven't worked the streets in years could pose a danger to fellow officers or even residents.
"He's putting people out there without giving them the proper intelligence, without giving them the proper information, because these people have not been out there answering calls," said Glenn White, president of the Dallas Police Association. "These people have been solving crimes."
Critics also say they are concerned about how the officers would manage their already-backlogged caseload.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"You're taking detectives and, while they are investigating cases, they are putting them all on hold for two weeks so they can go back into patrol," White said.
Brown acknowledged that it is a risk but one worth taking.
"I think a small percentage are virtually against every change," Brown said.
Nonpatrol officers will be paired with patrol officers and will get one day of training to re-acclimate to patrol.
They will serve in Dallas' highest crime areas, but Brown said he hopes the program will eventually be implemented citywide.
