Dallas police will still send officers to low-priority calls after controversial 911 memo

Dallas police officials on Monday cleared up the record on an unsigned 911 center memo released prematurely last week that said police would no longer be dispatched to certain nonurgent calls.

The communication debacle led to a firestorm last week and through the weekend, prompting police officials to conduct an internal investigation to see how the memo was leaked before police discussed the issue with Dallas City Council members.

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The memo, which came out of the 911 call center but was not authorized to be made public, said police would stop responding to about a dozen different low-priority calls like theft and interference with child custody. Those calls, according to the memo, would instead be eligible for a call diversion, meaning that a person would simply file an online report.

On Monday, Dallas Police Major Israel Herrera said he wanted to clarify that call diversions would only happen in cases that didn’t involve an immediate threat to a person.

“If anyone is in danger, obviously, a police officer will be dispatched,” Herrera said Monday during a city Public Safety Committee meeting.

The suggestion that police would not respond to certain calls touched off some hysteria, especially as it relates to child custody. But police said that response is typical in a case when a person fails to show up on time to pick up or drop off a child in a joint custody setting — as long as a child is not in imminent danger. Police officials said those reports are usually filed by people who want to bring them to family court.

Over the weekend, council members and police officials had to respond to frantic calls as social media platforms — from Facebook to the conservative platform Parler, which has now been disabled — spread misinformation about the unsigned memo.

Interim Police Chief Lonzo Anderson said the memo had not made it to his office, adding that such a proposal would require approval from the police chief.

The issue undoubtedly points to organizational communication failures that incoming Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia will have to sort out with his command staff when he begins in February.

When reached by phone Monday, Garcia said KPMG made good recommendations on how efficiency could improve but he also wants to take into account how changes can affect the public.

“Everything from staffing to call diversion are great recommendations — but then it’s our job to overlay the human cost,” he said. “What does that mean to the community?”

He agreed it was a premature memo that should not have been made public.

Call diversion program

Online reporting diversion is increasing at big-city police departments. Cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle and Fort Worth use similar programs.

In Dallas, the program started in 2019 to keep patrol officers on the streets for critical calls instead of dispatching them to low-priority incidents. A multiyear staffing audit by KPMG, a consulting firm, released in 2019 found the department was not efficiently deploying officers.

Police officials used Monday’s Public Safety Committee meeting to lay out background on the online call diversion program. Dallas police can already divert calls for minor car accidents, burglary of a motor vehicle, graffiti, criminal mischief and interference with child custody.

Dallas police averaged around 1,250 online reports a month in 2020.

The now-voided memo also drew criticism from Gov. Greg Abbott on Jan. 2 as it spread on social media. In response to the memo, he parroted conservative talking points of restoring “law and order” and the dangers of defunding the police — although the Dallas police budget increased for 2021.

Correcting the record

City officials on Monday said the memo’s premature release damaged public trust.

Now they’re considering how police are going to educate people on the online reporting system. Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn said the department needed to “think strategically” about how it was going to communicate the use of online reporting and potential expansion of the program.

The now-revoked memo offered little instruction, she said.

“I think it’s so broadly written that people don’t understand,” Mendelsohn said of the memo.

Herrera said that task would fall to Neighborhood Police Officers, a part of the department’s community policing unit, which would help brief homeowner associations, businesses and community groups.

Police also said there are plans to continue educating people in Spanish and English. Patrol officers are also getting training on the system.

Following the communication snafu, police officials have paused any plans of diverting other low-level calls. Police said they will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the call diversion program to measure efficiency goals.

Any future changes in the process would be presented to the Public Safety Committee for discussion.