Dallas Police Chief Asks for Huge Technology Budget despite 4 Year Salary Freeze

Dallas police officers have been on a salary freeze for the last four years, but that didn’t stop police chief David Brown from asking city council for a long list of expensive items.  The city council has been very receptive to their list of requested items, probably to the chagrin of the hard working police officers who risk their lives every day.

Technology helps law enforcement officials cover more ground, get more evidence, and yes rake in more dough from citizens.  However, some may argue that the timing of their wish list is awkward to say the least.

If the city is so adamant about becoming a safe city, they need to first take care of the law enforcement officers who are working the streets every day.  Technology is a big help to law enforcement, but let’s not forget the human element.  Without Dallas police officers who are trained to operate the technology, it is useless.

Technology Items on the DPD Wish List to City Council

Now if I were a police officer for Dallas, I would be pretty angry about the amount of money they police chief has asked the city council to spend on gadgets.  DPD has just over 3100 police officers on its pay roll.  If the city council eliminated the Chief’s request for the 400 surveillance cameras alone they would have $13.4 million dollars to give a pay increase to their boys in blue across the board.  That would increase salaries for police officers by almost $4500 if spread out evenly. Of course, this would not be fairest way to portion out the money, but you get where I’m going with this.  This number would

Of course, this would not be the fairest way to portion out the money, but you get where I’m going with this.  This number would represent a 10% increase in salary for the hard working police officers who stuck with the Dallas Police Department despite its four year salary freeze.  They work diligently every day to build cases against perpetrators and file criminal and felony charges against the bad guys.  Even Wal-Mart has a better pay increase platform than this!

If the Dallas Police Department expects to keep the talented men and women who work for them, they need to get their priorities straight.   Further, the men and women who are expected to look out for everyday citizens need to be compensated fairly if they are expected to hold up their end of the bargain.   We all know that technology can be useful, but even gadgets need humans to operate them if they are to be fully utilized.

While some can argue that the cost of these gadgets would help improve the performance of the police officers on the force, it is also important to keep their human resources motivated.