Dallas will begin a new fiscal year Thursday with its police department still hundreds of officers below the 4,000-officer level approved by voters under Proposition U.
The city’s newly adopted budget does not project reaching that threshold during the coming year.
The Dallas Police Department told The Dallas Express this month that it employed 3,410 sworn officers, leaving the department 590 officers below the 4,000 level established in the City Charter.
Dallas City Council approved an approximately $5.7 billion fiscal year 2026-27 budget on September 16. As The Dallas Express reported after the vote, the city’s staffing plan calls for DPD to reach approximately 3,651 sworn officers by the end of fiscal year 2027.
Even if that goal is reached, Dallas would remain 349 officers below 4,000.
The new fiscal year begins October 1.
What Voters Approved
Dallas voters narrowly approved Proposition U on November 5, 2024, with 50.43% voting in favor and 49.57% opposed, according to a City of Dallas memorandum detailing the charter provision.
The amendment added Section 15 to Chapter XI of the Dallas City Charter.
It requires the city to direct at least 50% of year-over-year increases in unrestricted revenue toward the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, up to the amount required by the State Pension Review Board or City Council.
Any money remaining from that allocation must go toward specified public-safety objectives.
Those objectives include placing Dallas police starting compensation and non-pension benefits among the top five qualifying departments in Dallas, Collin, Tarrant, Denton and Rockwall counties.
The charter also states that the number of full-time sworn Dallas police officers is to be increased to at least 4,000 and that the corresponding officer-to-population ratio must be maintained or increased going forward.
The City Secretary’s description of Proposition U likewise describes the amendment as requiring police staffing to increase to a minimum of 4,000 officers.
The charter language, however, does not specify a particular date by which Dallas must reach 4,000 officers.
Staffing Has Increased — But Gap Remains
Dallas has been adding police officers.
City records presented to the Public Safety Committee in March listed DPD’s “Current Strength” at 3,317 officers and described the department’s hiring goal as “4,000 Strong!”
The same briefing set a fiscal year 2025-26 hiring target of 350 officers.
The city’s previously adopted budget projected DPD staffing would grow from 3,264 officers at the end of fiscal year 2025 to 3,424 by September 30, 2026.
The latest number provided directly to DX — 3,410 sworn officers — indicates that Dallas has added officers but remains slightly below that earlier fiscal-year projection.
The newly approved budget accelerates the effort.
As DX reported last week, Dallas plans to spend more than $823 million from the General Fund on police in FY2027, up from approximately $758 million budgeted for the department in FY2026.
The city projects 3,651 sworn officers by the end of the coming fiscal year and 3,800 by the end of FY2028.
That trajectory would still leave Dallas approximately 200 officers below 4,000 two years from now.
Proposition U Has Already Reached Court
The disagreement over how Dallas must implement Proposition U has also become a legal dispute.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the City of Dallas, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland in February, alleging officials improperly calculated revenue subject to Proposition U and failed to satisfy other requirements of the voter-approved amendment.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office said in announcing the lawsuit that Dallas had understated the amount of excess revenue subject to the charter provision.
Paxton’s filing contended that projected excess revenue for FY2026 was approximately $220 million, while city officials had used a substantially smaller figure in determining the amount available under Proposition U.
Dallas disputes those allegations.
As The Dallas Express previously reported, the city filed a response in March asking the court to dismiss the claims and arguing, among other things, that state law preempts portions of the charter provision and that governmental immunity applies.
The city also issued a general denial of the allegations.
New Budget, Same 4,000-Officer Question
The Proposition U issue now carries into another budget year.
City Council approved the FY2027 budget 10-5 after a lengthy amendment process. The new budget increases police spending substantially even as Dallas makes reductions or restructures spending elsewhere.
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn raised the Proposition U issue during the budget process, warning that Dallas could face additional legal concerns if the staffing requirements remain unmet.
“We have to put our money where our mouth is,” Mendelsohn said during the budget debate, as reported by The Dallas Express. “We can’t have the mayor on a national stage saying public safety is number one and then not fund it.”
Dallas officials have pointed to aggressive recruiting and retention efforts as evidence that the city is working toward higher staffing levels.
City budget documents have also acknowledged the practical challenge of hiring hundreds of officers while accounting for retirements, resignations and other attrition.
What is measurable heading into Thursday is the gap itself:
Dallas voters placed a 4,000-officer provision into the City Charter in 2024.
Nearly two years later, DPD reports 3,410 sworn officers.
And the budget that begins October 1 projects that Dallas will still be short of 4,000 when the fiscal year ends next September.
Provided by Dallas Express
