After Internal Affairs Cans Two Officers on One Day, We Examine DPD's Stats on Fired Cops

On Thursday, acting Dallas Police Chief Cynthia S. Villarreal fired two long-serving Dallas Police Department officers following a recommendation from the department's internal affairs department.

Sergeant Terrance Scott was charged with official oppression in June after witnesses told police that Scott hit a man while working as an off-duty security guard at The Bridge homeless shelter on Canton Street in downtown Dallas. Scott arrested Timmy Don Moore on a criminal trespassing charge, and when Moore allegedly spit on him and called Scott the n-word, Scott hit him, witnesses said.

Scott joined DPD in 1991 and worked the South Central Patrol Division.

Germaine Walls, who like Scott was a sergeant, was arrested by Arlington Police in March for domestic assault and interfering with an emergency call. Amelia Flowers, 33, called police on Walls and both Walls and Scott ended up getting arrested for domestic assault.

Walls joined DPD in 2001 and was assigned to the Southeast Patrol Division. The March incident followed Walls getting written up in January 2016 for failing to initiate an investigation after learning of a possible "infraction involving another officer."

The Dallas Observer filed a request to DPD for the records of all the police who left the department between 2010 and the first part of 2016, covering the tenure of the now-retired Chief David Brown. The materials came on printed paper; we hand-counted the number of fired personnel to get the stats below.

While losing two officers in one IA hearing seems dramatic, it actually brings the tally of IA firings in line with current years:

Internal Affairs investigations are not the only mechanism by which the department fires employees. Discharge stats are counted separately, even though the bulk of these involve sworn officers: