Dallas Police Department

911 Callers Put On Hold While Oak Cliff Home Burns

At about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dora Fuller and her family were woken by smoke alarms. They quickly rushed from the home, on Berwick Avenue in Oak Cliff and called 911. They got a recording telling them all dispatchers were busy. So they hung up and tried again. And again. So did neighbors, but it to ... More >>

There's a Handcuffed Man on the Loose in Dallas. He May or May Not Have a Hatchet.

I've worked at newspapers in six cities now, and I can say this about the Dallas Police Department: Its media alerts are by far the most candid I've ever read. Today's is a great example: Today at 1:55 pm officers responded to a suspicious person call at 8401 Skillman. There were reports of a man ... More >>

Behind the Double Blind: Eyewitness ID Report Reveals What Dallas PD Already Knows

​It wasn't so long ago that Dallas Police Department would show witnesses for the prosecution six photos of would-be suspects and ask: Which one? Which is how, in part, Dallas became what Innocence Project of Texas founder Jeff Blackburn called "ground zero for criminal justice change" in our 2007 ... More >>

Who Says There's No Retail Downtown?

​A little while ago, the Dallas Police Department's Central Division posted this heads-up to its Facebook page:A homeless black male who possibly goes by the name "Poochy" is stealing puppies and selling them to residents in downtown Dallas along Main Street. The suspect is approx 53 yrs old, 5'6" ... More >>

Yet Again, DPD's Arrested One Of Its Own

​One week ago today the Dallas Police Department sent word that it had fired three officers -- one of whom, Lavar Horne, was also arrested last week for having kept a handgun and tossed some weed seized during a traffic stop. Well, the DPD just sent word that it's arrested yet another officer: Vic ... More >>

What Does It Take to Get Fired From the Dallas PD? Let's Go to the List of the Dismissed.

​Yet again, the Dallas Police Department sends an email saying there's a press release on Facebook -- so many hoops, but so worth it. The department says Chief David Brown's fired three officers, including Senior Corporal Cat Lafitte, otherwise known as the artist who took to Facebook in February ... More >>

Read For Yourself Dallas PD First Assistant Chief's St. Paddy's Day Parade Memo

Angela Hunt​Apparently, the Dallas Police Department is none too thrilled with how info is being disseminated about tomorrow's St. Patrick's Day Parade and Party along Greenville Avenue; what -- this wasn't as clear as green beer? Which is why Senior Corporal Kevin Janse, the department's spokesma ... More >>

To Ronald and Donald McMillion, Well Done

​The gentleman you see above in the Dallas Police Department uniform is DPD Sergeant Donald McMillion. Next to him, in the Austin PD uniform, is Sergeant Ronald McMillion. In case you hadn't noticed -- and, really, I like to take nothing for granted -- they are identical twins, who, for the last 3 ... More >>

DPD Chief Brown on Sunday-Night Shooting in Pleasant Grove That Left One Officer Injured

​No doubt you've heard about the shooting last night at a Pleasant Grove apartment complex that left one Dallas Police officer and a bystander wounded and the gunman, Kenneth Horton, dead. Moments ago, the DPD sent along this statement from Dallas Police Chief David Brown: Last night Dallas off ... More >>

News & Notes: More Tax Hike Talk, More DPD Officers Put on Leave, D's Logo And ... Sports!

Some killer filler this early a.m. before the showdown at City Hall:​Speaking of: Ann Margolin has posted to her website "10 Reasons Why a Tax Increase is a Terrible Idea." (And by "terrible," I assume she means terrrrrrible. Anyway.) Margolin, of course, is among the handful of council members jo ... More >>

Dallas PD Never Let Chief David Kunkle Forget That Ticket Interview Either

Courtesy the Dallas Police Department​Never you mind those stories about how today's Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle's last day. Sure, April 30 was his original retirement date. But it's been pushed back -- surely you didn't think the city would go without a top cop till Tuesday, when Chief Desig ... More >>

City Audit Finds Minor Discrepencies in Crime Stats, Says DPD Needs Computers

​This morning, Frank Librio at City Hall sent two audits released this morning by Craig Kinton -- one of which dives into whether or not the Dallas Police Department is properly counting crime stats per federal Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines. You can read the 29-page doc for yourself after the ... More >>

The Shortest Federal Lawsuit Ever, or: That's One Way to Get Your Gun Back

Whilst researching something entirely unrelated this morning, I came across a lawsuit filed in Dallas federal court this week: Lacy v. Dallas Police Department. The complaint is entirely self-explanatory, save for the part about how DPD is now in possession of a time machine.​

Dallas PD Kinda Knows Who Snatched Those Cheerleaders' Bags from DCC

This is the surveillance-cam pic DPD has of a couple using a stolen credit card.​It would appear from this tweet dispatched by the Dallas Police Department that the department has not, in fact, forgotten about those cheerleaders who had their bags stolen from the Dallas Convention Center on Februa ... More >>

Audit Figures Out How Dallas PD Civilian Employee Stole $17,000 Out of Petty Cash

​Speaking of crime stats ...City Hall sends word this morning that City Auditor Craig Kinton's look-see into how the Dallas Police Department handles its cash turned up a crime: "Approximately $17,000 was misappropriated by a DPD employee between Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 and FY 2008." The report does ... More >>

The Cop 'Stache, Already In Vogue in the 1890s

​Yesterday, Friend of Unfair Park PeterK wondered if I'd received the vintage Dallas cop photo he found for sale on eBay. Nope, had not. Which got me to looking. And, voila: I found this original cabinet card (taken at a photo studio downtown) featuring a Dallas Police officer that dates back to t ... More >>

A Lawsuit For the Taking: The City's Back at the Supreme Court of Texas in the Morning

​While we await the Supreme Court of Texas's ruling in the city's so-called billion-dollar case later this year, let's consider another city of Dallas case going before the court at 9 a.m. sharp tomorrow: City of Dallas. v. VSC, LLC. The court will hear oral arguments in the years-old suit that ha ... More >>

East Side Homeboy Who Shot at Cops Near Woodrow Is Found Guilty by Federal Jury

​When the shooting occurred in June, it merited but a few paragraphs in a crime brief headlined, "19-year-old fires on gang officers, Dallas police say." Today, though, the U.S. Attorney sends word that a federal jury found Rene Salazar, a member of the East Side Homeboys, guilty of two counts of ... More >>

When DPD Loses Track of a Tracking Device

While we're on the subject of embarrassing videos, let's take a peek at the one above, posted by the Dallas Police Department a few days ago. In it, a man breaks into a DPD bait car to steal the GPS device, and the department's asking if anyone knows who's responsible for the smash-and-grab. But I h ... More >>

A Quick Note Before Reading This Week's Paper Version of Unfair Park

Patrick MichelsWe're sorry, Chief.​In our effort to get some last-minute extra reporting into this week's cover story, "High Time For Change" by Dave Farrell, about how, just maybe, there's a bright future ahead for those pushing for the legalization of marijuana, the Observer managed to misqu ... More >>

More National Exposure for Dallas PD's Efforts to Treat Prostitutes as Victims, Not Criminals

We've written quite a bit about the Dallas Police Department's efforts to treat prostitutes not as criminals, but as victims: In '06, Jesse Hyde profiled the so-called "whore cop" who works truck stops; two years later, he wrote about the Letot Center, where minors on the run from their pimps are of ... More >>

Data Collector Quoted in DMN Crime-Stats Story Now Says "I'll Take Kunkle's Side"

Patrick MichelsIs Kunkle a numbers-fudger or simply exercising good judgment in dealing with confusing federal guidelines?​Another front-page story last week in The Dallas Morning News criticizing the Dallas Police Department's crime-reporting methods had the paper in a self-congratulatory mo ... More >>

So, Where Was That Crime-Stats Story?

Sam MertenFirst Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans​That's probably what Mayor Tom Leppert and the Dallas City Council are wondering this morning, because, on Friday, Dallas First Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans sent to council a memo warning them that The Dallas Morning News would "against presen ... More >>

Yes, But Will a Heavier Police Presence at Local Malls Encourage More Spending?

Toothpaste for Dinner​Scared to flash your wallet this holiday season at the mall for fear somebody might nab it? Hate leaving your goodie bags in the car will result in a smashed-in window? (No, we're not talking to you, NorthPark Center. Why do you ask? Oh ... right.) Look, don't worry: The ... More >>

Starting Wednesday, Dallas Police to Up the Number of Officers Looking for Drunk Drivers

​There's no place like home for the holidays -- right, Perry Como? The Dallas Police Department couldn't agree more: At this most wonderful time of the year, DPD once again launches its Home for the Holidays DWI initiative -- since, after all, "December, historically, is the highest month of t ... More >>

DPD's On the Lookout For One Tony Romo

No, not that one. The one featured in this video the Dallas Police Department just posted, in which a Big C convenience store at 2240 Irving Boulevard is robbed at gunpoint by two men, one of whom is a 21-year-old named Anthony Romo. (His accomplice is, thus far, unidentified by DPD.)According to Ke ... More >>

Your Up-to-Date Murder and Car Burglary Statistics. And One of Them Ain't Dropping.

​The council's Public Safety Committee's got a noon meeting on Monday, and even before Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle's surprise retirement announcement yesterday, they had plenty on their plates, including a look at the car burglary stats. There's even a Top 10 List, with the truck stop at 7425 ... More >>

Operation Car Wash, Vacuuming's Extra

View Larger MapJust saw this press release from the Dallas Police Department that contains relatively few details about something called Operation Car Wash, which DPD says has resulted in 27 arrests since warrants were first issued back on September 9. The release catalogs the drugs also seized, and ... More >>

Nobody Gets Out Alive: Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle Explains Why He's Retiring

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle​Tomorrow morning, at around 10, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle will hold a press conference during which he will announce that, effective April 30, 2010, he will no longer be Dallas Police Chief. He has known this day was coming for a while. He told Dallas City M ... More >>

A Few of the DPD's New Duties: Running the Red Light Cameras, Writing Parking Tickets ...

​It's just a single line on the city's Automated Red Light Enforcement Commission's agenda for Tuesday's meeting: "Program Transition from PWT to DPD." But as it so happens, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle tells Unfair Park, that transition -- getting the city's Safe Light Program out of Public W ... More >>

Dallas DA, DPD Reopen 1997 Murder Case, and Discover They Convicted the Wrong Men

Dallas County District AttorneyClaude Simmons is one of two men being exonerated for a 1997 murder he did not commit.​Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins's office sends word this morning that two men convicted of murder in October 1997 -- 54-year-old Claude Alvin Simmons Jr. and 39-year- ... More >>

DPD Cars to Go Back in Black-and-White

Cars Diecast​We're, oh, about four hours away from getting a sneak peek at the new Dallas Police Department cars -- that's when the city council's Public Safety Committee treks down to the DPD Basic Training Center for the unveiling of the new ride that's been parked in the HQ basement for the pas ... More >>

Dallas's Police Car of the Future?

Kimberly ThorpeCheck out more shots of this cruiser of the future in our slide show.​A few years down the road, you just may get pulled over by a Dallas Police officer driving this hot new number. If nothing else, it's on the DPD's wish list -- appropriate in the hometown of RoboCop.The first purp ... More >>

Dallas Police Department Will Take Over Investigation of Citywide Cat Killings

​Early this morning, Lt. Kimberly Stratman, who works in the Dallas Police Department's Family Violence Squad, called with the breaking news: The DPD has decided to take over the investigation of the cat killings in Northwest Dallas -- which, from tales shared and found, sounds far more widespread ... More >>

Who Needs Warning Sirens When the City's Sending Out Emergency Tweets?

​Perhaps you're aware that in recent days, the Dallas Police Department's moved to Twitter and Nixle in order to send out alerts -- such as Tuesday evening's press release concerning a suspect in the Skillman-Mockingbird area who, since October, has been responsible for at least four burglaries, o ... More >>

DPD Will Begin Shooting Its Own Short Films Along Lower Greenville and in Downtown

The Martin Scorsese of Lower Greenville may be out of a gig soon: This morning, Dallas Police Department Deputy Chief Vince Golbeck, commander of the patrol division, tells Unfair Park that for the past month, he's been considering taking camera crews to document the late-night and early-morning doi ... More >>

More DPD Surveillance Cams are Coming. And Here's a List of Where They're Needed.

The Dallas City Council's committees have plenty on their plates today -- everything from establishing a trust fund related to the NBA All-Star game to checking in on the Lancaster Corridor, which is in serious need of some upgrading, to parsing over crime stats (according to the Dallas Police Depar ... More >>

Office of the City Auditor Reports That Dallas's Municipal Court Is Sorta, Kinda Broken

City of DallasFrank Librio at Dallas City Hall was kind enough to pass along this a.m. the latest report from the Office of City Auditor, which has determined that the city's been losing a small fortune in muni court revenue since 2006. Why come? A bunch of reasons, actually, all of which are availa ... More >>

Twenty Five Years Later, Frustration Over Pursuing a Woman's Alleged Attacker

ABC NewsDallas Police Sgt. Patrick Welsh on Good Morning America todayGood Morning America this morning ran a lengthy story about a woman, shown but not identified, who believes that 25 years after she was beaten and raped at knifepoint in her family's home, the Dallas Police Department has solved t ... More >>

Yet One More Reason Not to Get Into an Accident: It'll Cost More For a Tow

In 2005, the City of Dallas assembled a list of hot spots (14 major highways, expressways and freeways) to which emergency wreckers were to provide "rapid response" in case of an accident (Page 41, if you must). And since at least 2007, Dallas Police and the Dallas County Sheriff's Department have b ... More >>

Poynter Makes "A Case for Airing Fatal Police Dashboard Video"

The DPD Could Use Your Eyeballs

The DPD's Video Collection is Growing -- Look Out, Blockbuster

Ever Snort Coke at An "After-Prom Party"? You Might Be a Dallas Cop Yet.

Keeping an Eye on Downtown

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Call me Ishmael. Just give me the damn audit!

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Dallas Police Department

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Making amends for past wrongs

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Dallas marshals put on leave for being shutterbugs