The City of Dallas will now begin searching for its 30th police chief. U. Renee Hall announced her resignation Tuesday.
Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax says Hall originally intended to resign effective November 10, but he asked her to remain through the end of the year. Hall became Dallas police chief in 2017 after David Brown announced his resignation the year earlier.
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Last year, Mayor Eric Johnson asked Hall for a plan to reduce crime in 2020. She returned with a plan to reduce crime by 5%.
"I want to thank Chief Hall for her service to the City of Dallas," Johnson wrote in a statement. "I had not spoken to the chief about her decision, but I was not terribly surprised by it considering the recent public statements of my City Council colleagues."
Last month, six council members said they had lost trust in Hall's leadership after the police department's response to protests after the death of George Floyd. During those protests May 30 and June 1, police arrested 674 people and used tear gas on a crowd that had closed Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
Johnson himself said he had "deep concerns" about the department's leadership after a report about the response was released in August.
In a meeting of the Dallas Police Oversight Board Tuesday evening, Chairman Jesuorobo Enobakhare said he did not expect Hall's resignation.
"I've watched Chief Hall own the mistakes the Dallas Police Department has made as any true leader would do," Enobakhare said. "You can do nothing but applaud her for that."
At the meeting, Rene Martinez with LULAC said Hall was never able to adjust to the role.
"The lack of trust and faith the city council displayed for her recently because of how she handled the protests were all factors that led, I think, to the resignation," he said.
But Enobakhare says the oversight board was working with Hall to bring "true reform" to the department. He says she had made progress in developing relationships and trust within the community.
On a search for a new chief, members of the Dallas City Council say they should focus on someone who can reduce crime further. Councilman Adam Bazaldua says the council and mayor should study "root causes" of crime and a correlation between high-crime areas and lower socioeconomic or impoverished areas of the city.
"We can invest heavily and do our part as city leadership to lighten the burden on our law enforcement and get to the root cause of why this violent crime exists," Bazaldua says. "[Hall] really raised the bar, the expectations and standards going forward with community engagement. Anybody who's going to be chief in this city is going to have to fill those shoes with expectations from the community to have a seat at the table."
Bazaldua says he expects Dallas to hire a chief from outside the department, saying someone from another city would come in "with an unbiased approach to shake things up if need-be."