Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia Monday unveiled what he said is a new approach to accountability that will lead the nation in building trust.
It’s called Constitutional Policing.
One activist is not sold on the plan, but the Dallas City Council Public Safety Committee members who heard about it Monday were pleased.
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“It’s something that’s going to be a leading edge. It’s something that we will be a leader nationally for proactively doing this and I’m very proud of the effort that we’re undertaking to accomplish this,” Garcia said.
Dallas was not immune from the nationwide 2020 demonstrations against police in the wake of the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd. There were accusations of Dallas Police misconduct in those May 2020 demonstrations before Garcia was chief.
Monday, Garcia recapped reforms Dallas has already embraced as he told the committee about this new program.
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“It’s about the department being proactive and trying to find our blind spots before anybody else does. We want to be the leader in law enforcement, not just with regard to public safety and reducing violent crime but insuring that we’re professional and doing everything we can to not lose our way and to never lose our way,” Garcia said.
Members of the committee voiced strong support for the plan.
“Public safety in general is a challenge and I know making sure we protect the right citizens and the people involved in that process can be a challenge, as well. And I am thrilled that we will have an office focused on this,” Council Member Kathy Stewart said.
Every Dallas officer now receives bystandership training on how to intervene if they witness misconduct, even from a superior.
All field officers wear shirt cameras to record incidents.
Dallas has a Community Police Oversight Board that review discipline and policy.
Promoting all that for the public will also be a mission of the Constitutional Policing Unit.
“As you outlined all of these steps, it’s been happening. It just hasn’t lived under an umbrella that makes it easier for a resident to consume,” City Council Member Gay Donnell Willis said.
Dallas activist Changa Higgins has been a leader of protests against Dallas Police.
He reviewed the briefing material for Garcia’s presentation.
“Any conversation the department wants to have about accountability and transparency is a good thing, right? So I will, you know, commend the chief for that,” Higgins said. “It just doesn’t seem that there’s a lot of substance behind what I’m seeing here.”
Higgins has just been appointed as a member of the Community Police Oversight Board. He said police have not always cooperated with the board’s requests in the past.
“This looks like a work around of the Office of Police Oversight. We don’t want work arounds. We want a real empowered oversight board in this city that can do it’s job,” Higgins said.
Garcia told council members the unit already operates with eight staff members, three sworn officers, and five civilian employees. Criminal Justice Expert Alex Del Carmen from Tarleton State University also provides input for the unit.
“We will always work with our oversight board. There’s question about it. But again, we don’t want to lose our way. We feel we’re a very professional police department, that we don’t have closed vision in this department and the one way to insure that never does happen is to always keep your eye on it. And that’s what we’re trying to accomplish,” Garcia said.
Police also reported ongoing crime reduction to the committee on Monday.
As of Nov. 30, overall violent crime is down 12% in 2023 compared with the same year-to-date period in 2022. Aggravated assault is down 15%. One exception is a 10% increase in murder.
