The Dallas City Council is considering dropping the experience requirement for becoming a police officer.
To become a Dallas police officer, candidates must possess college credit, experience in the U.S. Armed Forces, or a Texas Commission on Law Enforcement peace officer license. This compares to places like Austin and San Antonio, where only a high school diploma or GED is needed, or stricter cities, like Arlington and Plano, where a bachelor’s degree is a prerequisite to joining.
This is not the first time the City has considered making it easier to become a police officer.
Earlier this year, in February, The Dallas Express reported that the Dallas Police Department (DPD) was looking at removing certain disqualifiers from its hiring process. At the time, Deputy Chief Wiliam Griffith did not specify those disqualifiers.
The proposed changes stem from a shortage of sworn officers in the City.
Dallas has struggled to attract and retain law enforcement for the past eight years. On February 12, Dallas Police Department’s
Public Information Officer Jennifer Pryor spoke to The Dallas Express earlier this year, saying the DPD had 3,044 sworn officers on staff, far lower than the 4,000 a City report had previously said was needed for a City the size of Dallas.
If the new proposal goes through, no experience will be needed, only a high school diploma or GED. Currently, candidates can only join if they transfer from another department, have served at least three years in the armed forces, or have earned 45-60 college credit hours, depending on age, with a 2.0 GPA.
“We are competing for limited talent with limited interest in a sworn position… It’s like sales; the more you put in the funnel, the better results you will have hiring quality candidates on the back end,” said Jarred Davis with the City’s civil service department, per Fox 4 KDFW.
Not everyone is on board with the proposal, including Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn.
“I’m just going to say it. I don’t like this proposal at all… I don’t want us to lower our standards for police officers,” she said.
“We are not talking about any kind of job here that is anyone off the street doing a file clerk job,” added Mendelsohn. “We are giving someone a gun and the ability to kill other people. I won’t support lowering it.”