The State Fair of Texas opens Friday morning and even with a shrinking force, Dallas police are ready, according to fair and police officials.
The latest September figures show the Dallas Police Department has 3,016 officers, more than 300 fewer than two years ago and 600 fewer than 2011.
“We’re very aware of what the number situation has been with DPD, so we’ve been in talks with them from the beginning,” said Fair President Mitchell Glieber. “They’ve got to be able to cover what they need to cover around the city and we need to make sure we have a safe State Fair environment as well.”
Glieber said police asked that the fair hire more off-duty officers for protection so the number of off-duty officers will triple in 2018 to keep more on-duty officers on patrol. The fair will also pay for overtime police required to provide protection.
The fair paid the City of Dallas $1.5 million for police protection in 2017, about half the total cost. Glieber expects the bill to rise even higher this year.
“That number can change a little bit depending on what the circumstances are at the fair, if there are certain events that are bigger than others and they feel the need to bring in additional officers. We leave the planning to them,” he said.
The fair will not pay for all of the regular salaries of on-duty Dallas officers involved in 2018 Fair security.
“The State Fair of Texas is ultimately the responsibility of the Dallas Police Department, like any event that takes place in the City of Dallas. We work well with our partners. We’re happy that the State Fair is here,” said Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall.
The chief said she is confident in the ability of her force to protect the fair and the rest of Dallas at the same time.
Dallas City Council Member Philip Kingston pushed this year to make the fair pay all of the security expense. In August he said fair security would compromise response to other police calls.
“It’s not OK to ask a citizen to wait two and three hours on a burglary call when the fair is getting free police,” Kingston said.
His push for a city budget amendment to recover then entire fair security cost failed this month.
Glieber said the fair has never refused to pay more.
“We have never negotiated a single item with DPD,” he said. “It’s important to us that whatever they tell us to pay, we’re going to pay.”
The gates to the fair, which runs for the next 24 days, open at 10 a.m. Friday.
