Dallas Nonprofit Threatens to Sue If City Not Working to Hiring More Police Officers

Dallas HERO threatened Monday to file a lawsuit if the city did not adhere to a November voter mandate to hire 900 more police officers and meet with the nonprofit to review the budget.

It’s the second time the nonprofit has said it would sue the city since voters approved two controversial changes to the city charter. Proposition U requires the city to maintain 4,000 officers — it has just over 3,100. Proposition S makes the city more vulnerable to lawsuits by waiving governmental immunity.

In December, the nonprofit also said it would sue if the city did not enforce state law and remove homeless encampments from sidewalks within 60 days. That deadline was in February, but it hasn’t filed a lawsuit.

In a news release Monday, Dallas HERO threatened a second lawsuit if the city didn’t comply with the order to add officers within 60 days. That means the city has until May 30, the nonprofit said.

“Prop U is not a suggestion,” executive director Damien LeVeck said in the news release.

LeVeck added, “It’s part of the city’s charter, placed there by the will of the voters. Compliance is not optional. And, City Hall has been flagrantly disregarding this legal mandate since it passed last November.”

City officials declined to comment Monday.

Officials have said it will take time to hire nearly 900 officers. Nationwide, police departments have struggled to hire more officers. The city has indicated an unplanned budgetary increase could cut amenities like libraries and arts and cultural hubs.

The Dallas City Council recently voted to raise the police department’s hiring goals from 250 to 300 this fiscal year. A majority rejected a proposal to raise the benchmark to 400 after interim police Chief Michael Igo, supported by the city’s largest police association, said a sudden increase could force the department to pull officers away from the patrolling unit to train recruits.

Last week, council members voted to allocate $7.6 million in federal funds for hiring and retention initiatives in the police department.

LeVeck told The Dallas Morning News in an email that his organization was “pursuing a multifaceted strategy” to ensure the city complies with the two propositions.

He clarified that the nonprofit wasn’t expecting the city to hire hundreds of officers in the next two months. However, his organization wants to see the city’s “good faith effort” to show how it would reach the hiring goal. He said the city had not met with the nonprofit and offered “straight answers.”

The relationship between the city and the nonprofit has been combative from the start. LeVeck, who took over leadership after his predecessor Pete Marroco joined President Donald Trump’s administration, said he wanted to be more collaborative with city officials.

“Two things, if they wanted to quickly come into compliance, would be initiate the survey and sit down with us and talk about the budget, because those are the two things that aren’t going to cost them much money at all,” LeVeck said.

Dallas HERO has asked the city to hire a third-party firm to survey the starting pay and benefits of police departments in Dallas, Collin, Rockwall, Tarrant and Denton counties to ensure the city’s salaries rank among the top five cities in North Texas, another condition of the charter amendment.

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