Dallas eliminated two enforcement programs targeting delinquent offenders after accepting $50,000 from a leftist group that promotes critical race theory.
PolicyLink — a group that explicitly promotes critical race theory — gave Dallas a $50,000 grant in 2020 to examine its participation in Texas’ failure-to-appear and vehicle registration hold programs. These systems catch offenders who skip out on court, placing holds on driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations until they resolve open cases.
But after the PolicyLink study, Dallas’ “chief of equity and inclusion” recommended the city “discontinue participation” in these programs, according to a memo obtained by The Dallas Express. The city cut license and registration holds soon after.
PolicyLink is a “left-of-center research and advocacy group that promotes critical race theory,” which influences racial and economic policy across the U.S., according to InfluenceWatch. The group celebrated after Dallas “ended” its failure to appear programs.
Texas uses Omnibase for its license hold program to “ensure compliance with court orders” by denying driver’s license renewals to offenders until they resolve their case. Omnibase estimates 80 to 90 percent of offenders comply with officials who contract with the service.
Texas transportation law allows authorities to freeze vehicle registrations for those who are past due on a fine or fee, according to the Dallas County website. This program is called “scofflaw.”
Jim Lehman, collections program manager for the Texas Office of Court Administration for 18 years, told The Dallas Express that these failure-to-appear programs ease the strain on the judicial system. Lehman is also co-CEO of the Coalition of American Court Collectors.
“Although the residual effect is revenue, the real emphasis and the real purpose of the program is to get people to come to court,” Lehman said. “It empowers the courts, and it empowers the judges.”
He called the programs “extremely positive,” and said the court can discern whether a citizen is “blowing them off” or “really having a hardship.”
“If they’ve got kids, and bills, and all kinds of stuff, and they have an issue, the court can deal with that directly,” Lehman said. “The program is set up to complement that.”
But after PolicyLink’s grant and study, Dallas stopped new license holds on November 1, 2021, and stopped registration holds one month later.
Rick Ericson, the city’s deputy director of communications, confirmed to The Dallas Express that the city does “not use the OmniBase program.” The Dallas Express requested further comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Infiltrating Dallas Government
PolicyLink approached Dallas with a proposal in 2020.
The group offered Dallas $50,000 to review its “fines, fees, and related collections practices,” to participate in the Cities and Counties Fines and Fees Justice Cohort for “racial equity,” and to present an “actionable plan of at least three fine or fee reforms,” according to city council minutes.
Lehman said he had worked with Dallas during his time with the state, so a friend reached out after PolicyLink’s proposal and mentioned that the city might drop its failure-to-appear program.
“The council had been approached by several outside groups,” Lehman said. “They were giving them grant money in order to go in and do a big analysis of how their fines and fees work.”
Lehman told The Dallas Express the main group was PolicyLink.
The program lasted 18 months, and linked “various city departments and external community partner organizations,” according to a June 4, 2021, memo from Dallas Chief of Equity and Inclusion Liz Cedillo-Pereira – now assistant city manager – obtained by The Dallas Express.
A PolicyLink guide for members of Dallas’ “cohort” recommended taking an “equity framework” to combat “pervasive, often unseen, biases built into systems and mindsets.”
Participants like Dallas would do things like join monthly video conferences with “partner organizations,” sit in “webinars with experts in the field,” and communicate on a shared “listserv” platform. They would build and enact a “Fine and Fee Reform Agenda.”
The program wrapped up by suggesting the Dallas city council end “participation in debt-based driver’s license suspensions and vehicle registration holds.”
The Fallout
Cedillo-Pereira said in the June 4, 2021, memo obtained by The Dallas Express that, following the PolicyLink study, officials would “discontinue participation” in these programs. Dallas ultimately dropped them from the budget for Fiscal Year 2021-2022.
Officials expected these cuts to reduce Dallas’ revenue that year by nearly $700,000 and affect more than 72,000 residents across the city. More specifically, Cedillo-Pereira wrote in the memo, dropping these programs would “alleviate the burden of holds” on more than 44,000 residents in the top 10 ZIP codes.
Lehman said he thinks cutting these programs will have a “negative impact” on Dallas.
“Once the general public knows that there is weak or no enforcement of any code, any policy, then their behavior follows suit. It’s not that important to you, so why should it be important to me?” he said. “You put it off until it gets extreme. And the extreme could be the issuance of warrants.”
Lehman said some judges are “very interested in making sure that people comply,” so they will issue warrants. But he said others may also put off enforcement, simply sending the cases to collection agencies.
“The impact of that, in my opinion, is noncompliance or delayed compliance,” he said. “That creates a backlog – a huge backlog – because people just aren’t coming in, and they’re not responding to the collection agency, and there’s no pressure.”
PolicyLink instructed participants to “conduct a racial equity impact assessment” for each of their reforms. It stated that equity “addresses race forthrightly and productively,” aiming to solve “economic inequality and racial exclusion.”
In her memo, Cedillo-Pereira included a chart of the most affected zip codes, highlighting the majority race in each.
PolicyLink tells “government leaders about the harmful impact of fines and fees on low-income communities, particularly those of color,” according to its website.
Groups like PolicyLink say the programs are “hurting low income minorities” and “disadvantaging individuals who couldn’t afford to pay,” according to Lehman.
But compared to the rest of the country, he said, Texas’ programs are unique.
“It’s really cool, and I’ve advocated this program nationally,” he said. “There’s no other program like it in the country… It offers a huge cushion.”
Instead of suspending licenses, Texas’ failure to appear program simply blocks renewals, which incentivizes offenders to deal with fines and fees, but gives them plenty of time, according to Lehman.
“They had an agenda all along, and that agenda was to move the jurisdictions they work with away from fine and fee enforcement,” he said. “One of those tools that they zeroed in on was the failure to appear program.”
From ‘Equity’ to Enforcement Rollbacks
PolicyLink developed a “blueprint” for then-President Joe Biden’s “racial equity” plan in 2021, as The Hill reported at the time.
“We wanted to make sure that the ramp-up to address racial equity could be as smooth as possible,” PolicyLink CEO Michael McAfee told the outlet at the time.
PolicyLink launched in 1998 to promote “grassroots mobilization of left-wing activism to influence local policy,” according to InfluenceWatch. It hosts “briefings” with policymakers, and holds a summit every three years to “organize a cohesive racial agenda.” The group had $110 million in assets as of 2022.
The group launched PolicyLink Equity Action in 2015 to support “equity” in government housing and spending for “ethnic minorities,” according to InfluenceWatch. It founded PolicyLink Legal in 2018 to advance its agenda in the courts.
PolicyLink published an article on “Fighting Anti-Blackness Through Budget Justice” in 2020, applauding efforts to defund the police – and calling to go even further.
“Beyond defunding police, there’s a broader need to rethink regressive tax systems and structures,” the article reads. “As protests show no sign of slowing, the energy and attention in the streets must generate a groundswell of people demanding equity and justice in how we spend our tax dollars.”
PolicyLink published a study based on the “intersection of critical race theory, technological development, and advertising practice.” A “senior associate” was also a professor who taught a course titled “Critical Race Theory and Public Policy.”
After President Donald Trump was reelected in 2024, PolicyLink President Ashley Gardere hosted a webinar titled “Racial Justice After the 2024 Election,” according to InfluenceWatch, planning “racial equity” strategies during the second Trump administration.
PolicyLink, The Financial Justice Project, and the Fines and Fees Justice Center published a one-year review of efforts to subvert fines and fees, including in Dallas.
The Financial Justice Project in San Francisco boasted of being “the nation’s first effort embedded in government to assess and reform fines, fees, and financial penalties.” The Fines and Fees Justice Center aims to “eliminate the fines and fees that distort justice.”
“I think what they want to do is have a positive impact on the community,” Lehman said. “But the way that the process works is, anything that doesn’t fit in their box is outside of their box — and therefore you need to get rid of it.”