DALLAS \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Dallas officials, alleging the city is not complying with a voter-approved amendment requiring the city to hire 4,000 police officers and increase wages.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit centers on two \u201cHERO\u201d amendments approved by Dallas voters in 2024. “Proposition U” requires the city to maintain a minimum of 4,000 police officers and mandates that 50% of all new revenue go toward police and fire pensions. “Proposition S” gives residents the right to sue the city for failing to comply.<\/p>\n
Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said the department currently has 3,307 officers, leaving it nearly 700 officers short of the 4,000-officer requirement. In mid-February, more than 100 Dallas police officers received promotions \u2014 a move Comeaux said reflects ongoing hiring efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a large group that\u2019s being promoted. One of the reasons why such a large group is because of the amount of officers that we\u2019re hiring,\u201d Comeaux said.<\/p>\n
Despite the shortfall, Comeaux noted the department has reached a historic high in staffing.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, in 2026, we have more officers than we\u2019ve ever had here in Dallas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Paxton\u2019s lawsuit argues the city has failed to immediately comply with the amendment\u2019s funding and staffing mandates. In a statement, Paxton reiterated that the will of the people must be followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen voters demand more funding for law enforcement, local officials must immediately comply,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n
The city has taken what officials describe as a steady approach to implementation. The new fiscal budget raises officers\u2019 salaries from $75,000 to $81,000 and approves the hiring of 350 additional officers in 2026. In late-February, the Dallas City Council adopted a new \u201cMeet and Confer\u201d short term agreement with the city\u2019s police and fire-rescue associations, allowing them to negotiate more competitive pay and incentives as they work on solidifying a more long-term option.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Comeaux said community support has played a key role in recruitment and retention.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of cities, they kind of don\u2019t want the police around,” said Comeaux. “They only want the police around when they call, and Dallas is not like that. Dallas is reaching out to me saying, \u2018What can we do to help you keep us safe?\u2019 And that\u2019s amazing.”<\/p>\n
With a focus on increasing recruitment efforts and retaining veteran officers, Comeaux said he believes the department will meet \u2014 and potentially exceed \u2014 its hiring target.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal was to hire 350. It\u2019s my goal to blow that 350 away, and I\u2019m pretty sure we will,\u201d Comeaux said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Dallas officials, alleging the city is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3564,2160,132,3565,1570,102,104,103,138,19797,223,82,1569,2053,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-180254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-community-news","12":"tag-ctv","13":"tag-dallas","14":"tag-dallas-headlines","15":"tag-dallas-news","16":"tag-el-paso","17":"tag-michael-lozano","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-san-antonio","20":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}