‘Policing has to be legitimate’: Ex-Dallas police chief backs reform efforts

Former Dallas police Chief Reneé Hall said she supports calls from civil rights leaders to bring the department’s investigations into officer brutality up to federal standards.

Taking that step would not only strengthen accountability but also send a message that the city is committed to responsible and equitable policing, said Hall, who led the department between 2017 and 2020.

Now a Washington, D.C.-based policing consultant and board member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Hall questioned why city officials remain quiet after a Dallas Morning News investigation in July disclosed eight ways the department’s internal investigative practices fall short of Department of Justice standards.

“To be a legitimate police department, you have to have accountability and transparency,’’ Hall said in an interview with The News last week. “What mayor, what government, what city official doesn’t want their police department to operate with best practices? What are you saying as a city official when you can’t say that?’’

Dallas Chief Eddie García, her successor, and his media team declined to respond to Hall’s comments, citing ongoing litigation related to excessive force.

Hall said her intent is not to single out Dallas, which she called a “great police department,’’ for criticism. She said she encourages all police agencies to support and discuss best practices.

Detroit’s police department, where Hall spent her formative years as an officer before becoming deputy chief, learned the hard way, she said. In 2003, the Justice Department, concerned about patterns of brutal policing in Detroit, forced the agency into a consent decree, a form of federal oversight that lasted a decade and led to comprehensive reforms.

Hall’s tenure as Dallas chief brought challenges and controversy. Her department faced criticism about aggressive officers during George Floyd protests and for not providing enough analysis in a written assessment of its handling of the historic event.

Hall, the first woman to head the department, won praise from civil rights leaders and some veteran officers for working with them on reforms.

She threw her support behind the creation of the city’s police oversight office and board. That board recently said it was pursuing proposals to change investigative protocols following The News’ story.

Hall also successfully pushed for the purchase of a $900,000 early warning computer program designed to notify supervisors of officers’ problematic behavior.

Minister Dominique Alexander, president of the Next Generation Action Network, and Changa Higgins, founder of the Dallas Action Coalition, remember attending a meeting with Hall and other community leaders in 2018. At that time, Hall said the police department did not have a system that both tracked officer conduct issues and notified the chain of command when troubling patterns emerged so they could intervene.

“Chief Hall was seriously concerned during that meeting that the department did not have a system where supervisors were getting emails or other alerts when problems were identified,’’ Alexander said.

Since at least 2001, the Justice Department has recommended early warning systems as critical accountability tools. Federal officials pushed Detroit and several other cities to implement them. Dallas police officials said they implemented their own early warning system in 2009.

The first installment of The News’ Black & Blue series in July raised questions about how the department was using the system. For instance, data from the system obtained by The News showed the system flagged Officer Christopher Hess for multiple excessive-force complaints between 2012 and 2014 during a decade-long streak of violence that ended in his fatal shooting of Genevive Dawes in 2017.

Police documents show no indication that Hess’ chain of command received alerts or intervened with additional training or discipline. The News reported that the new system backed by Hall is still not operational despite a 2021 target date to get it up and running.

García recently gave a statement to The News saying the early warning system is being “beta tested.’’ His spokeswoman declined to explain the nearly two-year delay in its implementation.

Records obtained by The News last week show the contract for the system expires in November. The implementation has been plagued by administrative hurdles, delays due to the coronavirus pandemic and staffing changes. A presentation from the department suggested the system be beta tested on a small group of officers for three months.

Hall said the Dallas Police Association, the city’s largest police union, had repeatedly opposed her efforts to implement best practices such as the early warning system. Sgt. Mike Mata, president of the association, has criticized the tool publicly as part of a punitive process that can unfairly label officers as problem cops. Mata did not respond to requests for comment from The News.

Terrance Hopkins, president of the Black Police Association, said Hall took innovative approaches to holding officers accountable.

“She once told me that many of our officers do not understand that police are being prosecuted now and that she has to save them from themselves,’’ Hopkins said. “Many officers did not realize that was what she was doing, because they were ingrained in the old way of policing. She was trying to do the right thing and facing pushback.’’

Tonya McClary, the city police monitor who directs the oversight office, said she sometimes “butted heads” with Hall but valued her willingness to study police violence and improve oversight.

McClary said Hall assembled a team to research whether the department should establish a new division to focus solely on examining how officers use force, as Los Angeles, Detroit and New Orleans have done. García did not continue that effort.

Hall said her priorities were keeping crime down and enacting proven strategies endorsed by the Justice Department and national law enforcement leaders during an era of increasingly controversial policing following high-profile shootings of Black and brown people.

“I never wanted the Department of Justice to be able to come in and have a reason to investigate us,’’ Hall said.

Because she spent much of her three years in Dallas assessing the department’s technology problems, helping develop the oversight board and other projects, she said she did not have time to examine internal investigation practices.

Hall said she was not aware of the deficiencies highlighted in The News’ investigation — including the lack of a requirement that investigators have investigative experience and the absence of a written protocol to guide detectives on when to consult with prosecutors about serious allegations of brutality.

“Those best practices were on my radar,’’ Hall said, adding that thorough investigations are necessary to legitimize every police department and build public trust, particularly in communities of color.

If cities are not working with the community to embrace best practices, the consequences can be dire, she said.

“The issue is that if you’re not going to accommodate the community, then how are you policing?” Hall said. “If you are policing an adversarial community, you’re at war, right? We should not be at war with our communities.’’