'Exodus' continues at the Dallas Police Department

[Bigguy]

'Exodus' continues at the Dallas Police Department

Sources say so many officers are leaving the department that the personnel office can't process the paperwork quickly enough, and they are telling officers they have to wait to quit.

I did a search for Dallas and didn't find this story listed anywhere else. If it is and I missed it, please delete.

I realize that comments will be reserved on this issue, but I wondered if any of you guys have any insight you can share. I live in Texarkana, both of my kids live in Fort Worth. I was unaware of this until I saw this link this morning. I fear this doesn't bode well for Dallas.

[TR675]

All true. Incompetent administration + paying officers $10-15k less than neighboring cities + a royally screwed up pension plan = a lot of officers saying adios amigos - or just not signing up in the first place.

This is not new. Ive had a consumers eye view of problems with DPD for years - no patrols, response times measured with a calendar, officers not showing up for court - it's a bad deal and pretty dysfunctional.


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[psalms144.1]

One of my old partners had previously worked in one of the PDs in a suburb neighboring Dallas, and he echoed the comments that the DPD officers, though facing significantly higher and more violent crime rates, were lower paid, and had significantly less advantageous retirement systems. This is NOT a recipe for retention of top-quality personnel.

[DocGKR]

Same thing has happened at numerous agencies here, including San Jose PD, and now Santa Cruz SO...

[JR1572]

NOPD is still losing people mostly for the same reasons.

JR1572

[BigDaddy]

Same thing in Chicago. They recently gave an entrance exam and had to change the date three times to get applicants. When I took the test there were 25K that took the test. Now if they get 5K they are lucky. And out of that 5k they will only be able to put about 500 on the eligibility list for various reasons. Plus people are leaving in droves and the city doesn't really replace them in the same numbers. Pretty soon it will be every man for himself.

[voodoo_man]

Welcome to big city policing in 2016.

I tell the guys I work with everyday that they are either stupid or thick headed to stay at the PD I work for. Shit retirement, and calling the top brass incompetent would be an insult to incompetent people.

Few more years until I hit a benchmark and I'm out. County spot, federal, whatever as long as it's not here.

[NorthernHeat]

Like usual, there are a ton of factors that go into this and Dallas has slowly dug themselves this hole over the years.

Being in contact with these guys quiet often, I can tell you it makes you very happy to be at a place that is on the other end of the spectrum.

[txdpd]

I work at Dallas and I'm stuck in the middle ground, I don't want to restart at year 0 in another retirement system and and lose my seniority. I'd be surprised of the department isn't back to the 2,700 that it was at when I hired on by the end of 2016. No one can find or hire qualified police candidates right now, that's a nationwide problem. If you can't find new people, find officers at another agency. Who can Dallas poach? Gypsy cops that work hourly and have to find a new department every year? The city has basically said to officers, " fuck you we can replace you with someone off the streets," it's not 2008 anymore and they can't get anyone. For all the bitching about pay, the city pays a lot of money for someone to show up and be a glorified clothes hanger.

The pay is an issue, but the city isn't going to be able to spend it's way out of the problem. The departures are going to hit critical mass by the end of the year and the city will come up with more money. (When the city takes another bond downgrade they'll come up with money to fix the pension fund) Money isn't going to fix the the leadership and morale problems. Out of the 23 chiefs we have, there's one guy in the current command staff that could start to turn the department around. The one hope I had would have been to rehire Floyd Simpson, but sadly he's no longer with us.

[AMC]

I'm in the World's Biggest Outpatient Clinic just north of DocGKR. We're now experiencing severe difficulty finding recruits. We've been down several hundred from our mandated minimum staffing of 1,971 for years, and are facing another demographic time bomb at the end of our contract in 2018. But now, guys are leaving early and accepting a lower payout just to get away. Our academy classes were usually 50 or so recruits...the latest is 25 and that was scraping the barrel. Now they can't get enough applicants for the next class! So.....they sent out an email to all applicants the other day notifying them that the Physical Abilities Test is no longer required. That's right.....no physical test to become a cop. Now we can tap into that "overweight living in mom's basement playing call of duty covered in cheetos dust" demographic we've been trying so hard to recruit! And remember.....knives aren't dangerous, so no shooting Stabby McKnifeface when he tries to kill you! Gosh....I just don't understand why folks don't want this job anymore....it's a mystery.