Dallas Police Department staffing fell to 3,427 sworn officers as of October 27, leaving the force 573 officers below the 4,000-officer benchmark approved by voters under Proposition U, according to a newly released police memorandum. The department reported 3,447 officers in its previous year-end update, a decline of 20.
The figures are scheduled for the Dallas City Council Public Safety Committee’s Monday, November 9, meeting, alongside updates on the police training center and violent-crime reduction. The latest memorandum also reports fewer applicants processed in October and acknowledges a slow start to the new fiscal year.
Police Headcount Drops As Recruiting Slows
The October 27 total appears in a November 9 memorandum prepared by April L. Idleburg, assistant director of human resources and talent development for the Dallas Police Department. The previous report, dated October 13, gave a sworn strength of 3,447 as of the September 30 fiscal-year close. The documents do not provide a complete reconciliation of hiring, departures, and other roster adjustments.
The newest memorandum says 82 applicants were processed from October 1 through October 27, compared with 230 for the corresponding prior-year comparison cited by the department, a 64.35% decline. It lists 49 applicants in background checks, 20 in final testing, 22 awaiting command review, and 22 assigned to an academy class scheduled to begin November 4. These pipeline stages should not be added together as a total of unique applicants.
The department wrote that its transition to Workday had created difficulties and acknowledged it was “off to a slow start.” It said recruiting staff were adjusting their processes.
Academy Pipeline And Retention
Dallas hired 378 sworn officers in fiscal 2025–2026, exceeding its target of 350, the department reported. Its latest memorandum also states that 290 recruits remained in the academy as of October 27 and that six classes in the preceding fiscal year produced 317 graduates who joined patrol operations.
The same memorandum lists 10 sworn-officer departures for the new fiscal year but contains an inconsistent fiscal-year label in the comparison sentence. Accordingly, that figure should not be treated as evidence of a verified year-over-year attrition trend. The city’s prior year-end report recorded 211 departures in fiscal 2025–2026, up from 176 a year earlier.
Proposition U And Monday’s Agenda
Dallas voters approved Proposition U in November 2024, establishing a minimum force of 4,000 sworn officers and additional provisions concerning public-safety financing and police compensation. As The Dallas Express previously reported, the amendment does not specify a deadline for first reaching that officer minimum.
Monday’s agenda lists the hiring and attrition memorandum as Item G. It separately schedules briefings on the UNT Dallas law enforcement training center (Item D), violent-crime reduction (Item A), and the department’s Deep Ellum Halloween response (Item F). The committee is not scheduled to vote specifically on Proposition U compliance.
The meeting begins at 1 p.m. November 9 in the Council Chambers at Dallas City Hall.
Provided by Dallas Express
