In another uncovered troubling discovery for the Dallas City Council, documents obtained by The Dallas Express again show Dallas officials leaning heavily into political correctness at the potential expense of public safety.
A recent wave of documents showcasing political moves in the DFW area reveals an explicit effort by some city council members to defund the Dallas Police Department and shift taxpayer funds to more “woke” social justice programs.
Various documents obtained by The Dallas Express, particularly communications from multiple council members to former City Manager TC Broadnax, show an agenda that appeared to prioritize progressive social justice programs over the basic safety and security of Dallas residents.
In a shared email memo entitled “Reimagining Public Safety,” a call from some city council members asks for a shift in the City’s budget, further diverting money from police towards other initiatives that cater to the demands of the “defund the police” movement. The memo also stresses the need for a reimagined approach to public safety, with a cloaked focus on funding social programs while downplaying the need for more law enforcement officials.
“We hear many of our constituents’ calls to “defund” the Dallas Police Department. We understand that this call is a demand to address the deep root of our nation’s unjust practices and institutions and the need for us, as a city, to repair the harm of structural oppression. It is time to reimagine public safety,” the memo reads.
However, after calling to “reimagine public safety,” the supporting City officials did not directly define what that means for Dallas or its taxpayers.
However, the shared memo with the former City Manager Broadnax continues, pleading that, “We respectfully request you facilitate the alignment of our intentions with resources. We ask you to present options that reallocate public safety funding to equitable community funding….” before suggesting that the City should shift its focus away from police officers who “perform duties beyond the scope of their role” and instead allocate funding to “equitable community investments.”
The document, which urged Broadnax to present budget options for a past budget workshop, openly calls for reallocating public safety funds to “remedy discriminatory policies” and fund programs designed to address “historical oppression.”
At its worst, the memo appears to attack the Dallas Police Department’s funding. At its best, it is a misguided attempt to virtue signal current and former Dallas officials into ultimately prioritizing social justice issues with taxpayer money.
The shared memo ends by saying, “We look to use this process to restore trust between communities and City of Dallas policy priorities. Priorities like remedying the discriminatory policies that reinforced segregation and inequality….We must create a baseline where ALL Dallas residents are able to learn, recreate, work, and safely thrive in our neighborhoods. It is time to adjust our budget priorities and do what is best for the safety of both our communities and our officers.”
Another 2020 City budget demand pitch, co-signed by nine City officials at the time, stated, “Now more than ever courage is required from the Mayor and City Council to eliminate systems that reinforce inequalities and align the city’s budget with the people’s will. It is resoundingly clear the people want a complete shift of power from police and punishment to people and care…Defunding means divesting funds from the police department and reallocating the funds into non-police forms of public safety and community support.”
An additional budget report would echo the sentiments, with a shaky methodology explanation saying that the City would go “even deeper…. We created a bilingual ambassador program where residents throughout the city held vision sessions to discuss their dreams for Dallas. We equipped our ambassadors with a toolkit that outlined current city spending and offered ways to think critically about how the City could better meet their needs and wants.”
Residents of Dallas who have seen their communities hit by rising crime rates might find it surprising that council members are more focused on spending their tax funds on “systemic oppression” than safety.
The push to shift funding to DEI initiatives, programs whose effectiveness remains unproven, raises serious questions about the City’s priorities. Rather than investing in proven strategies that reduce crime, the Dallas City Council appears to fund policies prioritizing political correctness over pragmatism.
By funneling funds into initiatives that appeal to a narrow ideological base, City officials may be hoping to avoid a public reckoning over their failure to address the City’s crime crisis or the lack of accountability among its public servants.