Dallas Police

[Ramprat]

Just heard today at school from one of my C J instructors that Dallas PD will not have a Police Academy this year and they might not have one untill the year 2013. Just thought I pass this along.

[Rudy8116]

I highly doubt that, but if true, Brown better go on a firing freeze.

[corona11]

I fly down to Dallas tomorrow to finish up my stuff for the May academy. I called down to double check everything is still a go, because I've heard similar rumors. I was told the academies for this year still have the green light though. I was told to still fly down and everything. Lets hope its nothing more than rumors.

[bfkane]

Your CJ instructor is misinformed, there were rumors about it but city officials said police hiring/academies would go on as planned.

[Doc21]

I have a buddy on FTO with dallas right now. His FTO told him some rumors, even suggested he start applying different places. Just a bunch of rumors spiraling out of control in an unsure and crumbling environment. Nothing is final until its final.

[JTShooter]

Like stated, it's a rumor. The academy classes are apart of this current year's budget. There is talk of a hiring freeze for next year's though...

Also, the city manager has been talking layoffs again, and is requesting that we cut 10% from our budget next year... So the rumors of police layoffs, paycuts and the like are rampant...

Edit to add: as far as the FTO telling his rookie to look elsewhere, that's been going on since I got here... Even Sergeants have told me they wish they were in my position and could just up and leave

[Rudy8116]

I don't get how the city manager can talk about laying officers off when they are already have, what, 300 openings? The response time for alot of calls can be up to an hour or more (not the fault of the officers). How can layoffs or hiring freezes solve that?

I love this city, but I don't get the morons running it.

[JTShooter]

Sigh...

She never said anything about laying off officers. In my post I stated that she said that the city will be going through some more layoffs. I said that the rumor mill is already talking about layoffs for police, due to the fact that she has said that every department in the city will cut 20% EXCEPT police and fire, who have to cut 10%. Right now, our personnel costs are somewhere around 90% of our budget... so unless we plan on doing nothing but foot patrols for the next few years, they're going to have to trim personnel costs some how.

The "300-400 openings" thing started when times were "good" in the city and they wanted 1 officer for every 3000 citizens, so they were hiring 400 a year to get that number.

Response times to certain calls are high due to the archaic why we do business around here. For one of the top 10 largest departments in the country, we're really behind the times in some areas. While it's partially a money issue, it's also partially an issue of us crippling ourselves...

What it boils down to now is that we are our own worst enemy. We can't go a single day without at least one (sometimes 2 or 3) officers being in the news for being stupid. Add on top of that our way of cooking the crime stats making it appear that crime is down 40% every year for the past several years, and people begin to question why we need 3700 officers that can retire in 30 years with over $1mil in the bank....

[beavo451]

I wonder what would happen if they offered police and fire a retirement incentive like DISD and FWISD are doing...

[JTShooter]

it would be interesting.. since what, 40% are eligible for retirement, right?

[DFWPolice09]

If I were an applicant that was counting on Dallas to have any academies I definitely would pay attention to these "rumors". The academy it self might have been included in the current budget but the actual officers that will attend and then graduate is what the city is looking to cut. Its a bad situation all around. But any officer at DPD who is already on the street would tell you they would much rather see the academy closed for a year or so to allow attrition to shrink the department instead of layoffs. If there are no academies for the next year that prevented somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 recruits joining the department it saves 100 jobs for guys and girls who have already finished or are about to finish. Like I said no easy solution but it makes sense unfortunately!

[corona11]

I wonder what would happen if they offered police and fire a retirement incentive like DISD and FWISD are doing...

I thought they already did this. Or maybe I'm thinkig of the teachers in the dallas school system.

[formerdispatcher]

Corona, DISD as the Dallas Independent School District. Good luck on your test.PM me if you have any questions. I'm an Illinois boy turned Texan.

[r1967a]

I contacted them today and was told I am on a list along with 25 or so other people, that are supposedly next to be called for medical and crazy eval. guess we shall see.

[goodfella]

Is Dallas the only department with huge money struggles? From what I have gathered is that all the other departments in the Metroplex are doing well or at least stable.