Since Dallas launched its civilian police oversight board in Fall of 2019, the office has received more than 1,000 complaints. Through May, the office had received 1,074 complaints and is now averaging about 100 per month.
"It's more than a perception. These people aren't just hallucinating. They have legitimate complaints," says Ezekiel Tyson, a member of the Community Police Oversight Board from Dallas City Council District 10.
Members of the police oversight board took questions from the public during a Zoom meeting. Tonya McClary, director of the Office of Community Police Oversight, says some complaints deal with response time.
"Unfortunately, response times are just hard," says Tonya McClary. "There are only so many officers, and so when a call comes out, they have to prioritize. Violent crimes, crimes against persons are going to take precedent over property crimes."
She says other complaints involve officers not giving their name or not wearing masks during the worst of the pandemic.
But while her office has received more than a thousand complaints, McClary says a large percentage are not legitimate or do not deal with officer misconduct. Instead, she says people are filing complaints when they are upset about a citation.
"If you want to dispute that you were doing 55 in a 40, that's really more guilt or innocence. You have to take that to court and fight it out verses it being a complaint," she says.
While many complaints do not center on officer misconduct, McClary says the office is leading outreach with organizations and minority groups who may not feel safe calling 911.
"We are open to meeting with communities that have very specific constituents that may be concerned about policing," she says. "As you can imagine, if you're working in a community where people are undocumented, they're not feeling sure about picking up the phone and dialing 911."
McClary says the group is reaching out to LGBTQ groups and the homeless as well. She says the office is also looking at training in other cities and how they might handle citations or arrests in low level cases.
"I do try to make sure our police department is on the cutting edge, that we are modeling 21st century policing," she says.
This year, the Dallas City Council expanded the board's staff from three to five.
In an analysis of arrests from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2020, the board found Dallas police made 6,000 arrests for "low level offenses" each year. Most were for public intoxication followed by possession of less than two ounces of marijuana.
The analysis found African Americans accounted for 44% of the arrests but make up just 24.3% of the Dallas population. The analysis also found ten zip codes in southern Dallas accounted for 53% of low level arrests. In those zip codes, 48% are African American, 26% are White and 24% are Hispanic.
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