The Dallas Police Department has more sworn officers than it has in years, the city said. But responding to emergencies is still taking DPD far longer than it wants.
DALLAS — Dallas Police added 300 new officers in the past year, bringing its sworn strength to higher levels than it has had in years — but sluggish response times have been slow to improve, drawing sharp questions at a Tuesday City Council committee meeting.
“We have more officers, less call volume and slower response. That combination doesn’t make sense,” said Public Safety Committee Chair Cara Mendelsohn.
DPD now has 3,280 sworn officers, according to briefing material, the most in years.
The number of officers leaving the force has also declined significantly — contrasting with concerns raised by police pension managers and the largest police association, which claimed officers were eyeing the exit in higher numbers. DPD lost 176 officers last year, compared to 214 two years prior.
“We’re hiring more and attrition is lower, and we’re seeing more and more officers participate in the referral programs at DPD,” said Assistant Chief Israel Herrera.
But despite the increase in number of officers, the amount of time it takes for police to arrive to emergencies continues to improve only slightly.
The latest data shows DPD took an average of 11 minutes to respond to the highest priority calls — minutes beyond its stated goal of an 8-minute response. For the second-highest priority calls, incidents like robberies and car wrecks, the response times lag even longer.
“Our goal is 12 minutes; unfortunately, we’re not meeting that,” A DPD staff member told Council. “Our average is over 92 minutes I believe at this point.”
Council member Maxie Johnson responded: “That’s unacceptable. In district 4, I’m not going to accept that.”
Police acknowledged “we need to do better” and said the department is holding supervisors more accountable, examining new strategies and looking to fix outdated systems.
The department said more resources are being devoted to the violent crime task force — and some of the new officers are not yet fully working on their own.
Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said he’s proud of the modest improvement in response times.
“Times are going down, I see it’s going to continue to go down,” he said.
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