Dallas Mayor Speaks About His Request For Dallas PD Before City Manager To Unveil Next Year's Proposed City Budget

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) -  On Saturday, August 7, Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax will unveil next year's proposed city budget, including his spending plan for the Dallas Police Department.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the city has to support police Chief Eddie García's plan to reduce violent crime. "We've got to give him the resources for this plan to work and it involves increasing the police presence on the streets in the city." Johnson praised García's plan. "It's a few months in, it's already showing results."

After the number of murders and aggravated assaults increased for two years, DPD says there were 118 murders and non-negligent manslaughters between January 1st and August 1st.
That's down from 122 or 3% from the same time-period last year. Aggravated assaults, non-family violence are still more than 3% higher than last year during the same time-period.
But Johnson said the rate of the increases has slowed. When asked if he believes the city is turning a corner, he said, "Yeah, the plan is showing early signs of success. It's too early to declare victory."

Johnson previously announced he wants the city to hire 275 new police officers as well. And when taking attrition into account, he said the department would still have a net increase of 70 officers. City records show as of June, DPD had 44 fewer officers than the same month last year.

"We'll see soon enough, just how much the city manager is listening to me and I believe the residents of the city when we say we want to prioritize public safety," said Johnson.

Johnson has also said he wants officers and firefighters to receive salary increases to remain competitive with their counterparts in North Texas. He also wants to attract more experienced officers, who require less training. "There's definitely money to do it. We can afford to do it out of the money we've gotten from the federal government. The Biden Administration has said in fact that they hope cities will consider using the money for these very types of things."

The city council will have to approve next year's budget by the end of September. It takes effect October 1.

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