After members of the Dallas City Council took their oath of office, Mayor Eric Johnson called for a new public safety approach.
Johnson announced that officials would pursue a new “comprehensive” public safety policy during the city council’s inauguration ceremony on June 16. In his speech, he called for making Dallas “safer, stronger, and more vibrant” and said public safety should be officials’ “number one priority.”
“We’re going to focus on real, non-Chat GPT generated solutions,” Johnson said.
According to Johnson, the plan will evaluate factors like police response times and the city’s overall well-being. He said City Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn will help guide the process, and the city will seek input from criminologists, police and fire unions, and communities.
The Dallas Express asked Mendelsohn about the new public safety approach, but she said she could not provide further details at that point. The councilwoman advocates homeless reform, suggesting a big-picture approach and stricter encampment regulations.
The Dallas City Council brought on four new members on June 16. Maxie Johnson of District 4, Laura Cadena of District 6, Lorie Blair of District 8, and Bill Roth of District 11 took the oath of office for the first time during the ceremony.
“I’m just excited to work for my community,” Cadena told The Dallas Express.
When Johnson first took office in 2019, he said Dallas was facing “threats to our city’s greatness,” including homelessness, “violent crime,” and calls to shrink the police department. Johnson was previously a Democrat, but he became a Republican in 2023.
Johnson denounced the “defund the police” movement of 2020 and said Dallas refused to comply with it.
The city council cut $7 million from the police overtime budget that year, which they denied was “defunding the police,” according to NBC DFW. As The Dallas Express reported at the time, city officials shifted the budget away from public safety to cater to the “defund the police” movement.
Johnson also cited tax cuts and an updated ethics code for city officials. He claimed that Dallas is attracting businesses and seeing lower homelessness and lower violent crime.
Reports of homeless camps have risen 45 percent from 2021 to 2024, as The Dallas Express reported. The city continues to struggle with violence, seeing six fatal killings within a week. Last month, Dallas launched a Safe In The City program to curb homelessness and violence.
Dallas residents voted a “definitive ‘yes please’ for more police officers” in November, Johnson said. As The Dallas Express reported, voters approved Proposition U, requiring the Dallas Police Department to maintain at least 4,000 sworn officers – though the numbers are currently lagging.
The government’s job is to protect people, but in other areas, to “get the hell out of the way,” according to Johnson. He called for a “more efficient and more focused” city government and told officials to avoid “backroom shenanigans.”
“You can choose to make a spectacle,” Johnson said, “or you can choose to make a difference.”