Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Dallas for allegedly not complying with Proposition U, a voter-approved measure mandating 4,000 officers and increased pay.

DALLAS — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the city of Dallas for “unlawfully refusing to comply with Proposition U,” the voter-approved measure requiring Dallas to increase its police force to 4,000 officers and significantly raise their starting pay, according to a press release from Paxton’s office.

Paxton’s lawsuit names the city of Dallas, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, and Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland Jr. as defendants for “acting beyond their legal authority by underfunding the Dallas Police Department in direct violation of the charter.” Paxton’s lawsuit claims the city’s projected excess revenue for fiscal year 2025–26 is approximately $220 million, but alleges Ireland Jr. reported that figure was only $61 million.

WFAA reached out to the city of Dallas and Tolbert for a comment on Paxton’s lawsuit.

Prop U was narrowly-passed in November 2024 by Dallas voters. In October 2025, nearly a year later, WFAA set out to look at the effects of the Dallas HERO measures.

In June 2025, the Dallas City Council voted to change its police-hiring standards, eliminating its college credit requirement in an effort to hire more officers. Critics said lowering standards to boost hiring could lead to less-qualified officers patrolling the streets.

In September 2025, the City Council approved a new budget for next fiscal year. It included cuts to popular libraries and city pools and eliminated some city jobs, but added money for 350 new police officers — still far short of the nearly 800 needed to reach the 4,000-officer minimum mandated by Proposition U, which had no timeline for compliance. 

Paxton’s lawsuit also claims that the City did not comply with another mandatory provision of Proposition U that requires the City to hire an independent third-party firm to conduct an annual police compensation survey. Paxton alleges in the lawsuit that “public information requests revealed that no such survey was conducted, despite the charter’s clear directive.”

“I filed this lawsuit to ensure that the City of Dallas fully funds law enforcement, upholds public safety, and is accountable to its constituents,” Paxton said in the release. “When voters demand more funding for law enforcement, local officials must immediately comply. As members of law enforcement across the country increasingly face attacks from the radical Left, it’s crucial that we fully fund the brave men and women in law enforcement defending law and order in our communities. This lawsuit aims to do just that by ensuring Dallas follows its own charter and gives police officers the support they need to protect the public.”

The new city budget, which took effect Oct. 1, 2025, increased the police department’s minimum starting pay, raising it from about $75,000 to more than $81,000 annually, WFAA previously reported. But that still falls thousands of dollars short of several smaller suburban departments in the area.

According to city reports, DPD had 3,215 officers as of June 2025. Tolbert told WFAA in October that her goal was to gradually increase that number — but at the current rate, she said, the department won’t reach HERO’s 4,000-officer demand until around 2029. 

“It’s a balancing act,” City Manager Kim Tolbert told WFAA during an extended sit-down when asked about the impact of the HERO amendments on the budget. “We’re listening, we’re being responsive, but we’re also being good stewards of the public dollar.”

A DPD source told WFAA that number has since increased to approximately 3,300 officers.