Dallas police and fire departments funding could increase by around $83 million for the next fiscal year. However, the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget only increased by $80 million, which means funding decreases in other departments to maintain a balanced budget.<\/p>\n
Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland, along with other city staff, briefed council members on the proposed $5.66 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 on Tuesday. Council members were also briefed on the planned $6.31 billion budget for fiscal year 2028.<\/p>\n
Dallas has faced a budget shortfall \u2014 along with low sale tax revenue \u2014 for months which has resulted in city furlough days.<\/p>\n
The proposed budget has reduced expenses across several departments, including the Dallas Public Library, facilities management, and the Office of Arts and Culture.<\/p>\n
Ireland told council members that the top two priorities outlined in the city’s community survey were maintenance of streets and police services<\/a>. He said those two have the largest investment in the budget.<\/p>\n How much will Dallas police and fire get?<\/p>\n The proposed budget for the Dallas Police Department in fiscal year 2027 is more than $823 million. The city budgeted around $758 million for DPD in 2026 \u2014 however the city is forecast to spend about $6.6 million more than that this year.<\/p>\n Dallas Fire-Rescue could get just over $471 million in fiscal year 2027. That’s an increase from the 2026 budget at around $453 million \u2014 although the city is forecast to spend around $7.7 million more than budgeted.<\/p>\n Proposition U<\/p>\n Proposition U, passed by Dallas voters in November 2024<\/a>, requires the city to spend no less than 50% of unrestricted excess revenue for public safety, including the police and fire pension.<\/p>\n Excess revenue is year-over-year growth in city\u2019s revenue not restricted by state or federal law. That means money from the city’s General Fund, which is largely funded by property and sales tax.<\/p>\n Since Prop U passed, Dallas has been put on notice more than once by Dallas HERO<\/a> \u2014 which put the proposition on the ballot \u2014 and was sued by Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> earlier this year for allegedly not complying with it.<\/p>\n Police and fire expenses are projected to be 63% of the General Fund for fiscal year 2027.<\/p>\n But Proposition U also requires the city to have at least 4,000 sworn officers. The city is still not projected to reach that number in the fiscal year 2027 budget proposal.<\/p>\n Dallas police response times<\/p>\n Tolbert told council members on Tuesday that the city has evaluated hiring based on response times. That’s after an NBC5 investigation<\/a> found that some urgent Priority 2 calls took up to an hour and a half for police to arrive and some Priority 1 responses averaged 15 minutes.<\/p>\n Police Chief Daniel Comeaux was tasked with lowering police response times when he came to the role last year.<\/p>\n Comeaux told council members that no data has been provided to show where the 4,000 officer required by Prop U was based on. He said from a policing standpoint, he was not certain that number was necessary to be efficient.<\/p>\n “It seems like it’s a number that was just pulled from the sky,” Comeaux told council members Tuesday.<\/p>\n Comeaux said response times have decreased and added other ways they could continue to go down, like utilizing technology and possibly redistricting some of the DPD stations.<\/p>\n “We might have to make some of the [police] districts a little bit smaller, which then could also help response times,” Comeaux said. “And, I think as we continue to do that, we start looking at the data, 4,000 might not be a number that we actually need; the number could be lower than that.”<\/p>\n Dallas police and fire big ticket priority spendingPolice hiring: End fiscal year 2027-2028 with 3,800 police officersDallas Police and Fire Pension System: increase of $20.3 million in fiscal year 2027 for a total investment of $246.0 millionPolice and fire pay: increase entry level starting salary to $83,822Uniform overtime: $13.8 million in increased funding for Dallas Fire-Rescue uniform overtime<\/p>\n Got a tip? Email Megan Cardona at\u00a0mcardona@kera.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n