TexasCHLforum.com

Since 2011, Dallas’ police force has shrunk by more than 600 people, according to department reports. More than 40 percent of that drop has been since 2016, and officials continue to report large numbers of departures every month... The diminishing ranks come as the cities' populations continue to grow and violent crime rates creep up from rare lows. “It’s kind of like the perfect storm,” said Robert Taylor, a criminology professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. “You got failing pension plans, you have low pay, and then you have all sorts of political turmoil doing the job of enforcing in major cities.”

...A primary reason for Dallas’ shortage has been its inability to keep young officers from transferring to Fort Worth and the surrounding suburbs...“They’re all cherry-picking our best officers,”...The city has always paid less than its neighboring agencies, but the department had countered its low pay with an excellent pension plan...That pension plan lost much of its selling power in recent years

Caraway, now serving his fifth non-consecutive term on the Council, accepted $450,000 from Robert Leonard and Slater Swartwood Sr., both former executives with Force Multiplier Solutions, the Louisiana-based technology company at the center of Dallas County Schools stop arm-camera scandal. In exchange for the cash, the feds say, Caraway influenced the City Council's vote on the stop arm-camera program, which allowed DCS to collect civil fines from those who drove past the signs without stopping.