Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson held the State of the City Address on Wednesday in the council chambers at City Hall. The mayor highlighted several areas he was happy with and areas that needed improvement.
He started the more than 40-minute long address by commending the resilience of Dallas residents for their perseverance through the COVID-19 pandemic and February’s winter storm.
He also expressed satisfaction with the cities latest budget that has been approved. The new budget increases investments into the police department and public safety from $513.5 million in the last budget to $566 million.
With the increase in funding for public safety, Dallas plans to hire 250 more police officers this fall and another 250 new officers next fall. It will also increase minimum pay and salaries for first responders and increase hiring in the city’s 911 call center and code enforcement departments.
Johnson praised the city council for approving the budget, stating that they “made a greater commitment to keeping our neighborhoods safe than any other City Council in recent history.”
He also expressed support for Police Chief Eddie Garcia’s results in reducing the city’s violent crime. Garcia has led the police department while violent crime has dropped since he was hired in February. Statistics found that through October, overall violent crime was down around 7% compared to last year.
Johnson touted the statistics, which also show that murders and robberies are lower through October than in 2021, as “nothing short of remarkable.”
On the negative side, Mayor Johnson admitted City Hall required greater accountability. The mayor stated that he would implement recommendations from the ethics reform committee he created to hold City Hall accountable and weed out any corruption. According to Johnson, the proposals include a new “sunset review process” that will help reduce waste and modernize city services.
Johnson also pointed to controversies surrounding the city’s mismanagement of data that hurt the city’s integrity as an area that needed to improve. In October, a city of Dallas employee was fired after accidentally deleting more than 22 terabytes of police archive photos, videos, audio, and other materials. Furthermore, nearly two terabytes of hacked footage from Dallas police helicopters and drones were leaked online.
Despite the areas Johnson stated needed improvement, he finished the address by affirming his belief that the city is on the right track and that as long as City Hall “gets back to the basics to build for our future,” the people of Dallas will take it from there.
