Dallas eases requirements to boost police hiring amid officer shortage
The Dallas Police Department will have a larger pool of potential applicants to choose from for its trainee program after a City Council vote this week.
The Dallas City Council unanimously approved a change to city policy on Wednesday that broadens who is eligible to become a sworn officer. Until now, a trainee police officer had to be at least 19.5 years old, a clean driving record and meet one of the following criteria:
- At least 45 credit hours from an accredited college or university with a C average or better
- At least 36 months of experience as a certified law enforcement officer
- An active Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) license
- At least 36 months of active duty military service with an honorable or uncharacterized discharge
With the change approved by City Council, an applicant can also be at least 21 years old with a high school diploma or GED, and at least 36 months of full-time, consecutive employment.
Challenges hiring, retaining Dallas police officers
The policy change comes as Dallas is under renewed pressure to grow its police force.
Last fall, voters approved an amendment to the city charter known as Proposition U, which mandates the city have a minimum of 4,000 police officers. At the end of the 2024 fiscal year, the department had 3,120 sworn officers; as of last week, the total was 3,215.
Michael Igo, the former interim police chief who left DPD in April, said in February that the department's goal was to hire 250 officers each year, and they were on pace to reach 300 this year.
The city council's public safety committee recommends that DPD's hiring goal should be 325 officers.
In , Dallas has struggled to hire and retain officers. From 2016-2018, concerns about the pension led to a mass departure; in that time span, 531 officers were hired but 993 others left the department. 2024 was the first year since 2020 that more officers were hired than departed.
