Note: The video above is about incoming Police Chief Eddie Garcia's priorities.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson called on more openness and transparency in city government after a memo regarding diverting 911 calls was prematurely released Saturday.
The city got off to an “inauspicious start” regarding public safety in 2021, Johnson said.
“I knew nothing about this memo or plans to implement such a strategy. Neither did city councilmembers. Nor did the incoming police chief, Eddie Garcia, who starts next month,” Johnson said.
The Dallas Police Department said Saturday that the memo, which had been forwarded to staff members at the 911 Call Center, has been rescinded. There had been conversations on the topic, but it was sent prematurely, police officials said.
The internal memorandum said that police officers would no longer be dispatched to certain crimes, such as criminal mischief or graffiti, but that there would be some exceptions.
Starting in 2018, the firm KPMG was hired and spent seven months analyzing staffing at the police department and in August 2019, it provided recommendations to the city council.
KPMG said that the top 911 call types in 2018 in Dallas were major disturbance (violence), other, suspicious person, minor accident, and business alarm. Of the top 11 call types during a five-year period, only 2.25% resulted in an arrest and 33% required a report.
The Public Safety Committee plans to discuss the call diversion idea from the recent memo at a Jan. 11 meeting.
“The department is still in the evaluation phase on this item and will have further dialogue on recommendations and next steps,” the department said in a blog post.
“This shouldn't be how you find out about these decisions, and it shouldn't be how your elected representatives find out either,” Johnson said in his Sunday email newsletter.
There were 251 homicides in 2020, compared to 199 in 2019, according to the police department.
Incoming police chief Eddie Garcia said his main priority will be tackling violent crime.
“The goal must be to make Dallas the safest major city in the country,” Johnson said. “Together, we can make that a reality. Isolated decision-making, on the other hand, is how these kinds of memos go out.”