Dallas' new police chief, Daniel Comeaux, talked with KRLD Radio's Joe Kelley and quickly made his boundaries known: He'll talk about crime and filling out the ranks and why he's happy to be in his new role, but he won't discuss immigration.
A wide variety of topics were covered in their one-on-one talk, including Comeaux's goal of hiring more officers. Chief Comeaux says he not only wants to attract more candidates, but he wants to promote from within.
So, what are his top priorities when it comes to reducing crime?
"The main thing, first of all, I'm going to take care of the residents of Dallas. I'm also going to care of our officers. So we're going to work together as one shoulder to shoulder with the community and the police," Comeaux said.
There's been a shortage of law enforcement officers across the country and amid a heavy recruiting effort, how does the new chief plan to attract more police officers to Dallas?
"Pay helps," the chief told Kelley. "I think pay helps and I also think time off officers help also. So that's something that I'm going to talk to the city about where the officers can have a little bit of flexibility. I think with the new generation that will definitely help in recruiting and also we want to change the culture. We want to change a few things in the department that's going to attract others not only to come."
Pay matters, and so does leadership, the chief stressed.
"We're going to start grooming everyone that's in the department to be leaders. Those who want to be the leaders will continue to groom them to be leaders. I am truly blessed to come from the outside to promote to chief, but I also want everyone in the department to understand that it can also happen."
The chief said residents will see him out and about, and they'll also see his command staff and just the regular patrol officers in the community. He plans to bring back some of the 'old school values' to re-engage trust.
"We have go back to where, you know, playing basketball with some of you. We have the little things where the community looks at us and the kids look at us and say, I wanna wear that badge one day. You know, when I was growing up, if you took a poll in the classroom, The majority of the... Kids would say I want to be a fireman or a police officer. That's what would happen. We need to get back to that."
Part of old-school policing includes focusing on getting drugs under control because with drugs comes violence, comes gang activity, the chief noted. "So all of that's really looping into one, and we're really gonna work at knocking down the drug problem."
So, with a presidency that is a lightning rod in a lot of quarters, there's been a huge effort when it comes to illegal immigrants. What kind of involvement will the Dallas Police Department have when it come to their federal partners and illegal immigration?
That's when staffers intervened and shut down the line of questioning. Watch the full interview above.
He won't talk immigration, but what is something that he wants people to know about him?
"I'm thrilled and happy to be here," the chief responded. "I'm looking forward to getting to know everybody and working shoulder to shoulder with all of the officers, all of our law enforcement partners, but more importantly, the citizens and the residents of Dallas."
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