Incoming Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux will inherit the success of a downward trend in violent crime as well as the challenges of recruitment and retention. The City of Dallas’ Public Safety Committee met Monday on the heels of last week’s announcement of Comeaux’s hire from the City Mana ger’s Office. Public Safety Chair Cara Mendelsohn took a moment Monday to acknowledge the hire before moving on to committee briefings. Comeaux will step into the role as numbers show a nearly 13% reduction in violent crime so far compared to 2024. The strongest contributing factors are declines in aggravated assault and murder. Murder is down by 44%. Aggravated assault is down by 11%. Individual robbery and business robbery are also down by 12% and 7%, respectively. Much of the Dallas Police Department’s crime reduction plan is based on the concept that crime is concentrated in small areas throughout the city. The department has relied heavily on grids to target those hot spots. Aggravated assaults and family violence increased by 3%. The department’s crime reduction team said it will focus on community outreach, training, and public safety announcements in multifamily communities in an effort to combat domestic violence. Mendelsohn said she would like to see a continuation of the violent crime reduction plan introduced by Former Chief Eddie Garcia in 2021. “We’ve got something that’s working, and I would not be willing to give that up,” she said. “Should [Comeaux] put his own spin on it and bring his own experience that might change things and how we do it? Absolutely. I would expect that.” While violent crime numbers are promising, there are opportunities for recruitment and retention. For the month of March, the department’s hires consisted of 50 hires and one reinstatement. The academy class is expected to begin on May 7, with a projected 50 people entering the academy with the intention of ultimately joining the force. The department has some 3,200 sworn officers now. They’re looking to add roughly 800 more on the heels of a measure that requires the department to maintain a staff of 4,000. Committee member Tennell Atkins said a new training facility could help in that area, though plans for that project have come under scrutiny. “I just want to make sure that we can make sure we get the police training facility together to hire police officers to get that done, so that’s a key right there,” Atkins said. For her part on retention, Mendelsohn asked that the police department use the hiring and attrition ratio as a metric during the recruiting and hiring process. “It’s looking like for every two that we hire we lose we lose one. Would you expect to see that ratio change over time, or is that what you think the ratio just is for the department?” She said she’d like to see a focus on officers within their first five years on the force. “We need to make sure they’re supported and encouraged, and we have a good pathway for them to advance in their career, and that we’re a competitive place to work, both with pay benefits and working conditions,” she said. Comeaux answered questions earlier this month about his plans for expanding department numbers. “We’ll think outside the box. There’s a plan that I want to come up with where I look at hiring some contract officers, and it’s officers that still have some gas left in the tank that are retired,” he said. Tolbert said the city will introduce the new chief on Monday, April 21. Comeaux’s first day on the job is slated for Wednesday, April 23. ...read more read less