DART Police
Submitted by History on Wed, 10/17/2007 - 16:28.
[Ed Note: This thread is really heating up!]
Here's the deal, there are more Dallas Police Officers deployed to the State Fair of Texas than there are officers in the entire DART police department. Let's see how this stacks up and maybe we can figure out why DART seems to think that they're staffed appropriately....
DPD Minimum staffing - 150 officers on patrol
DPD Maximum staffing - 400 officers on patrol depending on the event
Number of DART officers - 138 total including the chief - in reality somewhere about 120 total on patrol
State Fair of Texas - 145,000 people per 12 hours
DART claims 98.1 million passenger trips per day or about 134,000 people per 12 hours
Let's take a look at the numbers....
Officers per person at the State Fair of Texas - 0.001034483 minimum & 0.002758621 maximum
Offers per person on DART - 0.000888889
Well, that's not working. DPD has a full order of magnitude (one decimal place) higher ratio of officers at the Fair than DART does for the entire transit system. I guess that people who go to the State Fair are more important than people who ride to work every day on DART. Still, they might be using geographic dispersion. Let's check that out next...
Area to cover - 277 acres for the State Fair or 448,000 acres (700 square miles) for DART
So based on density, we go from .6 to 1.44 police per acre a the State Fair to 0.00027 officers for DART
Hmmm...geographic density isn't anywhere close to sufficient. If it's not the number of people and it's not the geographic area they're covering, I don't really know how else you're supposed to distribute your police or make sure you have enough of them to go around in the first place. The two ways that distribution works are either over an area or by concentration (aka police to person ratio). It's pretty sad where there are more officers at the State Fair then there for the entire transit system.
Given the sparsity of the DART PD, a lot of things suddenly make sense. It's no wonder cars are being broken into at DART parking lots. The wonder is that they're not just taking the cars outright. Who's going to notice? Certainly not the non-existent DART PD.
It's no wonder someone tried to car jack me in a DART parking lot. The wonder is that I was able, through my poker skills, to bluff my way out of it without getting hurt. The next person will likely not be as lucky. Who's going to notice when it happens? Certainly not the DART PD, because they don't patrol that lot. I have never ever once seen a DART officer at that station.
It's no wonder that murders, rapes and armed robberies are being committed on DART property. Every other transit system in the world is literally crawling with police. I go for weeks some times without seeing so much as a Fare Inspector much less an armed police officer.
What is a wonder, at least to me, is why DART hasn't hired more officers. By every metric we can manage, DART is undermanned and the few police that they do have are horribly overloaded trying to do the impossible.
As much as I feel for the DART PD rank and file, I feel even worse for the unsuspecting DART passengers that get on the train day in day out thinking that they're safe.
State Fair Police Presence
I am not sure your comparison of the State Fair and Dart is a fair one. Fair Park is one place. Big, but just one place. DART, by definition, is in several cities, in many locations and jurisdictions.
Also, the staffing of DPD at the Fair came after a murder and several gang related stabbings and robberies. The Fair is about 22 days long, so the increased cost is absorbed by the City to guarantee a high turnout and more money for the City as people spend money in Dallas.
If we had a State Fair year round, could we afford to staff it that well? Who knows. However, it all goes back to the adage, "You get what you pay for."
When enough people want to pay for the government services they really want, then costs go up. Then taxpayers complain. My friend and I had a car broken into at a DART station once. But you know, that happens all over Dallas.
You have made many good points, but like I said, compare apples to apples, not parking lots and moving trains and buses to the State Fair.
More DART
Recent,
Amazingly, you seem to come up with statistics that boggle the mind. When was the last time a murder, or MURDERS as you put it, occurred on DART property? Where do you get information? Apparently, you get them from thin air. There have only been a couple of homicides on DART property in its tenure, and DART Police and Dallas Police solved those cases. Apparently, you did not get the email on those. Sorry, next time those departments will drop what they are doing and shoot you a line.
I assure you that the DART Police Department rank and file, as well as the rank and file of every other police agency in America, are aware of their staffing troubles and are working diligently to correct the situation. Maybe you have not noticed (how, I don’t know with your knowledge of EVERYTHING) that almost every police agency in the area constantly advertises for officers. They are all understaffed. And, just a little tidbit of information, most seasonal functions, such as the State Fair, are not police function. Those officers are their as Off-Duty Police Employment or they are paid overtime. But with your research, I am sure you already knew that.
While your writing is sometime eloquent and entertaining, I find it repulsive that you do not do your research. Creative writing 101 was good for you. It gave you a voice. Obviously, you have chosen to utilize your talents in a manner that shows the good people of Dallas that you are about as uninformed as... oh I don’t know...J. Schutze, Dallas Observer, who likened the DART Police to Nazis, and sensationalized something that occurs in cities everywhere. Each day, in cities all across this wonderful nation, police officers encounter some idiot that doesn't want to go to jail on a minor warrant. Said idiot then resists or runs from the police. Said idiot then gets a trip to jail, sometimes via the hospital because he resisted to the point that an officer had to use more force to subdue him. Sorry, went on a rant.
The bottom line here is that your words slander good people. All the while, you just keep typing away about any little thing that crosses your mind, with very little research. Even a Google search now and then would not hurt. Funny thing is that you miss the good things that these agencies do. With a little research, you might find out that a DART Police Officer saved a man's life just a few weeks back when his heart stopped at the DART Headquarters downtown. You might even find out that another DART Police Officer saved another man's life by pulling him out of a burning vehicle. Furthermore, you might find out that DART Police Officers have caught various suspects trying to use the trains and buses after committing their crimes. There are far more "incidents" of that nature than you will ever know. Or maybe you don’t want to know. If you knew that, your stories would not have any significance to anyone.
Sorry for the rant, just tired of the B.S.
[Ed Note: I really want to leave this to you and Recent Coin as much as possible. But can you point me to where DART is advertising for police officers? With respect to Schutze and the story of the guy hauled off to jail for jaywalking ("Bus Gestapo"), I have to side with Schutze. It was a bit excessive and the situation could have been handled much better.]
DART Rebuttal
Dear Anonymous Coward,
First off, let's get one thing straight. You're not sorry you're ranting at all. That's perfectly obvious from your slightly nasty tone. Now, let's pick your poor little argument apart line by line. I'll skip the personal assaults because that's always an indication of weak to non-existent basis in logic, reason, or reality.
Hmm...let's see...that would be FROM DART. You indicate that there aren't any, then you turn around and contradict yourself and say that there have been "a couple". Perhaps you should pull your own stats and have a peek. I have 3 years worth. I'm still converting them to a digital format, but I'd be happy scan them and send them to you.
All that aside, one is too freakin' many. It's just more proof that you're not staffed appropriately. But then, we both know that and you've already agreed with that.
We're not talking about every police agency in America. We're talking about DART. I hear that DPD was very successful in Detroit. Perhaps, you should take a lesson from their example. I notice that a lot of the places that you're advertising are local or seem to be targeted to people looking for a specific geographic region.
I'm impressed, the best thing you can come up with is to point out that the DPD officers are getting paid over time to work the State Fair. No mention of how the number of officers needed for that is arrived or why you have about 1/3 as many for the entire transit system. That must mean that my assessment is right.
Furthermore, the police men that are there are 1) in uniform, 2) can still arrest you, and 3) are still armed. In essence, they are still functioning as police officers. I fail to see how you pointing out that they're there on over time is even relevant to the issue at hand which is how understaffed DART PD is.
Oh, lets see, that's not been the only thing DART officers have been involved in. There was the officer who coerced underage girls into sex in exchange for "making their ticket go away." There was the "Kickstand Scandal" where DART officers were engaged in extortion and having sex while on duty. Then there's the DART officer that's currently under indictment for using his uniform, his police car, his badge and his gun to kidnap and sexually assault a woman.
If you guys want a better image, you might try something simple. It's calling behaving yourselves.
The Texas Rangers are incredibly well respected. Why? Because they do their jobs with a brisk effiencey and because they are *not* involved in these kinds of scandals. This is a model you might try emulating. Heck, they're even pretty close to being local.
I suspect that you don't like having what you're doing pointed out to people. I do my research. I file Freedom of Information Act Requests rather frequently.
I think I hit a bit too close to home.
We're not discussing "these agencies". We're talking about hiring more DART police officers so that you're staffed appropriately and so that the 98.1 million passenger trips per year can be peaceful, uneventful, and safe.
Rebuttal....DART
Not a coward, I stand behind what I said. While my tone was at times nasty, it was to drive a point home. I do not believe you to be stupid, just not fully equipped with accurate information. I would be more than happy to look at your stats. I have no doubt that you do research, I just have an issue with some of your statements that I have read being a bit off from reality. While you may have stats on paper, some of us live the stats that you collect. I would be more than happy to sit down over a cup of coffee and debate some of your statements. I am always up for a good debate.
[Ed Note: Sounds like a challenge, Recent!]
Dear Anonymous "Person",
If you don't at least use a pseudonym that identifies you on a consistent basis, you are by default an "Anonymous Coward". You post comments that no one really has the ability to link together as coming from the same author because they're all "Anonymous". This has been "netiquette" for quite some time. Since you were so quick to advocate the use of Google, I thought you'd be aware of it.
Let me drag my giant sheets of paper out and I'll see what I can do.
Being Anonymous
It has been said before, but it bears saying again. Just because someone uses "anonymous" as their ID, that does not make them bad. Get off your high horse. Some of us have jobs to lose if ever identified. So what if several people use the same "anonymous"? Take each comment on its own merit. I never notice you are the author of a comment until AFTER I have read it. In the virtual world, nobody is truly brave or truly a coward. We just are. Period.
Anonymous
My humble apologies for not being up to date on "netiquette." As I have said before, I am new to the world of blogging so I just responded as I saw fit. My apologies as well for not linking. I will say that I am the pain in the butt that has been hitting you up on the last 12 or so comments.
I am not into chat-rooms, myspace, message boards (except this one), etc... I am into pina coladas' getting caught in the rain, yoga, and champagne...oops that was a song. Anyway, being that I am a fresh face to the world of blogging and of male persuasion, will just simply call myself... NewGuy. Kind of catchy huh?!?! I really did not think about giving myself a name. I thought of giving myself the name HappyFeet, since my children love the movie, but then I figured I would suffer an onslaught of ridciule. NewGuy seems to fit well.
I am the one that has been trading knife throws with you on DART stuff. The Salary, rebuttal, PD vs State Fair...Guilty as charged. I am not, however, the person that you replied to in your "Purposely hiding..." comment.
As I said before, I am not here to call you stupid or even trade attacks with you. I agree with "some" of your statements. I just have a bit more "hands on" knowledge about things that occur with this agency. I guess my biggest point is to say...much like any argument involving percentages and stats, there is always going to be ways to use the data to support or shoot down each side. For example, the glass being half full or half empty...it is all in the arguing person's perspective. The water level is the same in both arguments, one just has a more positive outlook on it.
The other point that I make is that crime does occur everywhere, yes even on "public transportation." So, while blogging about it may be good in the sense that you are getting your anger off your chest, the reality is that every major metropolitan area with a transit system experiences these same issues.
P.S. Still waiting on the coffee.
[Ed Note: I emailed you offering to put the two of you together. Can you use the Feedback portion of the blog and get me a good email address?]
Re: DART Issues
DART has advertised for Police Officers through several media forms:
Dallas Morning News
Dallas Observer
Law Enforcement Publications
Multiple Web Sites
As far as the Gestapo, while his story was excessive...the true accounts of the event were not excessive. Research would have done him well. Reality is that nobody really considered him to be credible enough to talk with...except the guy that went to jail. Funny though how artistic license took the place of factual reporting, including the so-called FBI investigation.
[Ed Note: Actually, I'm not one of Schutze's biggest fans (long story, but it's personal) either. However, he does his research. When you don't bother to give a reporter your side of the story, he or she does what they can to corroborate the other side, and let's the story stand or fall on it's own merits. So if there is more to the story, and DART didn't consider Schutze credible, that's their own fault.
I'd like to point out that Channel 11 did a news story on it as well. Perhaps they were not credible either?
I also asked where one can go now to see these job postings for DART Police Officers. Maybe a link to one of the "multiple web sites" would be a start? Perhaps I wasn't clear enough beforehand.]
DART Police Opportunities
Just a few:
www.policeone.com/careers/1283025/
www.theblueline.com/feature/TXDART.html
www.indeed.com/q-Dart-Transit-jobs.html
www.dart.org/hr/humanresources.asp?zeon=transitpolice&plevel=155
www.efc.dcccd.edu/ssi/EFCjobfair.htm
www.jobcop.com/
www.militaryjobworld.com/vea/index.cfm?page=resource&id=10&cfid=6&cftoke...
[Ed Note: Thanks for the links. Can you tell us how many positions DART has open and at what rate they're filling them?]
Analysis of Your Advertisement
I visited the first link you posted. Here is the salary information you list:
Entry Level Salary: $40,700 annual
Academy Graduate: $41,800 annual
However, I backtracked and looked at the first 10 or so postings for police officers. I excluded sherrif's deputies and anything that didn't say police officer. Here's what I found:
Carrollton
Entry Level Salary: $48,634 annual
Top Pay: $65,578 annual
Flower Mound
Entry Level Salary: $2728 monthly = $32736 annual
Top Pay: $3883 monthly = $46596 annual
Frisco
Entry Level Salary: $42,764 annual
Academy Graduate: $48,880 annual
Top Pay: $63,107 annual
McKinney
Entry Level Salary: $42135 annual
Now to be fair there are towns in Texas that pay less, but they have names like Shamrock (population 2029) , Tool (population 2467), and Floydada (population approximately 4000).
Why They're Short Handed
Now you are getting part of the picture as to why the police department is short handed. If you look at most of the other cities in local area, you will see the same variance.
Salary is Low, Risk is High
The biggest issue, for me, has been their long term intractable hard-headed refusal to even admit that there is a problem, much less actually DO something to fix it. At least they're now admitting that there is a problem. To give credit where it's due, they are also making some tepid overtures toward hiring more officers.
My contentions have very little to do with the DART PD rank and file. The average patrol officer has an almost impossible job. The constant stress from being understaffed can't make for pleasant working conditions in what is, under optimal circumstances, a difficult job.
Almost all of my ire is directed at their (mis)management and the managers who are doing the "managing". Almost all of my criticism is directed toward them. Almost all of my prodding is for them to hire additional officers.
My figures, which I published in November of 2005, said that DART should have 672 officers minimum. The number for DART is so high, in large part, to the geographic dispersion of the officers. If they have more square miles to cover, it takes them longer to do it than it does if its only a few blocks. I've yet to see any numbers from DART as to what they would consider adequate staffing, or any sign that DART has a *serious* plan to remedy their staffing situation.
I'm sorry, but offering to pay $8,000 a year less than the competition just doesn't strike me as a *serious* offer. It's a token effort, at best. At worst, it makes DART seem miserly and undesirable as an employer. It is for that, and a host of other reasons, that I have long advocated that the DART PD be dissolved as a separate entity.
Policing of the various DART locations would fall to the police departments where those facilities are located. The individual DART PD officers would be transferred to the various member city PD's to become staff there. The money that currently goes to fund DART having a seperate PD would be partitioned out to the member cities to provide a police presence at DART Rail Stations, Transit Centers and Park-n-Ride facilities.
This wouldn't cost DART anymore than they are already paying per officer and it would eliminate several things that are quite redundant. Why maintain a separate shop to work on the police vehicles? Every local PD has that anyway. Why maintain a separate dispatch center? Every local PD has that anyway. Why maintain separate training and certification for your officers? Every local PD has that anyway. That's all money that could go toward hiring more officers.
I'm sure that by the time you divide 138 officers between the 13 member cities, that they could absorb them without even noticing. That's an average of 10 officers per city. Since the current number of officers employed by most of the member cities ranges into the hundreds, I doubt that they'd even be noticed.
Salary Low
I understand where you are coming from and I agree with you to a certain extent. You are preaching to the choir about salary and manpower. The problem with dissolving the PD would be that DART would end up dissolving as well. Local PDs have enough on their plate without dealing with the issues from the transit system. With all of the local PDs being undermanned as well, that would just get their departments up to full staffing and would not address the issues with the transit system. You have to understand that the DART Police Department strictly focuses on DART problems or problems related to the transit system. With that, DART patrons have come to expect certain benefits of DART having it's own police force. Local PDs would still not have the resources to contend with the call volume that comes from disturbances on buses, trains, and transit centers. DART patrons know that we are there to help and protect them, even though we may need more officers. On top of that, DART patrons would fade from the system if they were put into a "call box" at a local PD, listed in priority behind the local residents of the city.
You mentioned Plano in a previous posting. If Plano PD were to take care of DART calls for service, the rider ship would most likely decrease. Not because of anything negative about the police department, but because they would be dispatched by priority, which would be low (based on our typical calls for service). Each department has nuisance calls or they have calls that are low in priority, just as we have. If you take the DART calls for service and add them to an already bogged down call list, you will end up with lots of angry patrons feeling that the PDs don’t care. And that would not be the truth. The local PDs care very much, but they have to take care of their priority calls. Look at a typical call sheet for a Dallas PD patrol officer. You will find that from the time they exit detail, they are jumping from call to call. You add DART calls in there and the call sheet will only get longer.
Understand that while you don’t see the need for DART having a separate PD, you need to ride along with some of us and see that the people we serve and help are extremely grateful that they are our priority. The local PDs are probably happy that we are there to take that burden from them. A typical call for service for one of our officers takes only minutes. Only in extreme cases will you ever hear one of our dispatchers tell you that we will not respond to something due to its priority. I have had numbers of people tell me that they were told by a local PD dispatcher that an investigator would contact them in a day or two on a residential or vehicle burglary. That is because they are bogged down with calls. Imagine throwing our call into that. It is just not feasible.
Now, this is not a "Rank" person speaking to you. I am just an average officer. I don’t speak on behalf of DART, but I do speak to educate people on what is real with the department. Trust me, whether you believe that DART is doing right with the management of the department or not, there is a need for the DART Police Department to have a separate police force. We may not have as many officers as we need, but we are giving you and the rest of the patrons everything that we have to keep them safe and secure.
Not My Experience
I really don't have a problem with the average DART officer. You guys have a nearly impossible job to do and not nearly enough people to do it. Like many of us, you're overworked, underpaid, and under-appreciated. If I had my way, there would be a lot more of you and you'd be better compensated for making sure that all of us can get to work and home again safely. Since I can't give you anything else, and you'll probably never hear this from anyone else - Thanks!
I really think that all of you would be better served by having DART contract with the member cities for an on going police presence at the train stations, transit centers, and parking locations. I also think that the public would be better served by it as well. There's no reason that officers from the member cities couldn't be routine assigned to patrol those locations and only leave them in crisis situations.
There's also no real reason that DART can't implement some measures to make you guys more effective. CCTV would be one. Restricting access to passenger waiting areas is another. There are others, but this isn't my area of expertise. It is supposed to be DART's though. So far I've not been hearing any proposals or seeing anything done differently. Mostly, I get a lot of insults and name calling in my blog by people who are obviously DART management.
I have been seeing Fare Inspectors more frequently though these last couple of weeks. Of course, that was after I pointed out how much money DART's loosing on fare evasion. Just on person per train stop per day is enough to hire 4-6 of you guys for an entire year, even at Flower Mound salaries.
I'm going to point you back to the whole thing that got this ball of wax rolling in the first place.
I suggest you read this - http://www.dallas.org/node/99
I'm not talking about you personally when I say this.
How, in name of all that good and right, can you claim to have anyone as a priority when you can't be bothered to intervene in a situation like that? Particularly when there was a DART police station in Union Station at the time. All they had to do was get up and walk out to the train. We're in what was probably a life and death struggle and they can't be bothered for 45 minutes.
I'll qualify this by saying that's your dispatcher(s) but the dispatchers are part of the police department. It's also another reason I'm critical of not having the member cities able to respond to calls on DART property. What happened me then should never ever happen to anyone to calls 911.
Experience...
Okay, I read the entry. First, the DART Police have not had there offices in Union Station since early 2002. Just so you can understand why there were no DART Police inside.
I can’t really comment on the dispatchers, other than to say that the officers may have been tied up on calls at the time and they were not able to make it there in time. Also, I am not really sure why 911 did not send the local guys. At times, depending on the severity of the crime, the local PD does show up to our locations. In fairness to the 911 operators, they may have been going on an existing policy that restricted them from dispatching local PD to DART.
Whatever the reason, I will tell you and the young ladies involved that I apologize for our officers not being able to get there. I can’t really offer an excuse, but I do know that we cover a wide area and at times we are swamped on calls. However, I will say that even though we are spread thin and extremely busy at times, we are normally still able to get to crimes in progress quickly and find the offenders as well.
While you are one in a million...a person actually taking time to care enough to call the police, there are far many more that just watch and then go home and say, "You know what I saw today on DART." If more people would get involved instead of looking the other way, maybe we could put a bigger dent in the crime. I had a situation where I was arresting a young man who was rolling a blunt and a lady sitting right next to the man looked at me and yelled, "Why are you messing with him? It is just weed." She had no problem with the fact that he was sitting next to her with a bag of marijuana. Granted, small amounts of marijuana are trivial compared to a rape or major crime. But, how far does it go? How far does it have to go before someone takes action. One of the major reasons that police officers don’t seem to be around when you need them is because of minor crimes. These are minor crimes that pull officers away from concentrating on major crimes. When a person calls in about someone (panhandler) bugging them for money, which I know you have an issue with that based on previous blogs, it bogs down service. While people feel uncomfortable having panhandlers around them, there are ways of just avoiding them. Most panhandlers can be told to leave by several people and they will vacate. At times they become more persistent and they need to be dealt with. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we don’t need to handle them, just that there are so many calls of a minor nature and they bog down response. I will take it a step further, there are actually calls from people saying that the person on the train sitting next to them or near them smell bad and they want the police to come get them. Last time I checked it was not against the law to stink. If it was, there would be a lot of people in trouble, and I am not talking about just homeless people.
Now, am I taking up for the department? Yes. What I would like you, as well as others, to understand is that crime does occur everywhere. We, as police officers in general, try to get there as quick as we can and we try to prevent as much as we can. The reality is, just as I have said before, the criminal element consists of more manpower than you or I could ever fathom. There are far more violators than there are law enforcement officers. And, in reality, the job doesn't pay all that well, so there is not that big of an attraction to the average person to decide, "Hey I want to be a cop." Much like problems in the Middle East, there has always been problems with criminals (since biblical times) and there always will be. There are tougher laws and punishment in the Middle East, and they still have crime.
Here is an interesting tidbit. There are people who practice disarming police officers or attacks on them daily, much like terrorist dry-runs. These people have nothing but time on their hands and they methodically run through scenarios to get their tactics down. That is scary. It is also a cold fact of life.
Look I have gotten on a serious soapbox here, so I will just close for now. NewGuy out.
Citizen Involvment
I will agree with you on citizen involvement. I think that part of it is how it's approached. Right now, the announcement given is to "Report suspicious behavior...". What's that? Will people on the train understand what that is? Will both the passengers and the DART staff agree?
Will DART staff do anything? I've tried to use the elevator at Mockingbird Station and gotten some very dirty looks from the homeless people who were literally camping in it. Which, frankly, I don't care because you shouldn't set up your camp in a public elevator. The DART staff at the station were studiously ignoring the issue even though they were working on the escalators near by. They left it for me, the passenger, to deal with.
I think that a rotating announcement, "Report drug sales and/or use...", "Report open containers of alcohol...", "Report people asking for money, cigarettes,....", etc., would work much better.
DART Experience
Thank you for that. You are right. Not many police officers, DART or anywhere else, hear that often enough. Trust me, if we had our way, we would make $100,000 a year without OT. But the reality is that none of us are here for the money. While this will sound so cliche', "We are here because we really love serving our community and helping people." The excitement of a car chase or foot chase helps from time to time. But honestly, we just love what we do. There are police officer all across the land that do this job for lower pay than ours. I wish that there was a standard across the country so my blue brothers and sisters would not have to work so much overtime or off-duty. But, that is life.
As far as the contract police, it just would not work well. Mostly because there is no ownership in the system. As a DART Police Officer, much like city officer to his/her city, there is a since of ownership to that system. You take ownership in the agency or city that you are employed with because that is who you serve. If you are contracted, such as off-duty employment, there is not such a since of ownership. Simply put, it is not your bread and butter. Your home agency is where your primary focus is. Not saying that you wont do your job, just that the off-duty is not your primary means of living.
I will look up the other part and get back to you on that one.
Ownership by Officers Not the Issue
The issue isn't really the ownership or lack thereof that the individual officers have. It's the lack of responsiveness, lack of planning, and poor decision making by the DART management and DART police department management that I really want to get rid of. Sadly, I can think of no other way to go about it other than simply to dissolve the department.
If you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Dissolve not an option
While I understand that your mindset is coming from an outsider looking in viewpoint, dissolving the department would only compound the problems that you are talking about. If anything, a change in philosophy might be good. I don’t have the answers to everything, but I do see the issues from all sides.
Again, dissolving the department would increase the crime. The reason that you can not see that is because you are working on a limited basis of knowledge with regard to the full scale of what departments do. That doesn't come from spreadsheets and data collection. That comes from getting out there and really looking at what a department does and seeing the product that they produce. Ownership is only a part of why we are as successful at keeping the vast majority of crime down. Look at the older days of transit system policing. It did fall under the cities. And when that was in effect, trains had graffiti all over them and thugs really did control the trains. We are a far cry from those days. The reality is that if we take steps backward, based on your proposition, we will go back to the 60s and 70s way of life on public transportation. Granted, it is not a perfect system with absolutely no crime to speak of, but then again where does that exist? Highland Park? Plano? University Park? Lake Dallas? Even the most higher paid and the most "High Society" areas have crime. It is a credit to their departments that they are not being run over by criminals.
Sorry, went off the edge there. What I am saying is that public transportation had that type of policing before, and it was known that you didn't ride after dark. That is not a slap at the cities, just a reality that the transit system is not their highest priority unless there are major crimes happening. That is just reality. Add to that the jurisdictional issues that the system runs through different cities and counties. Logistically, that would be a nightmare for them. Again, what may look good to you on paper and graphs does not necessarily work when it is in play.
DART, Schutze, etc.
My apologies. I know that a google search will pull up several of the online resources. They do actively recruit at military bases, colleges, and through various other sources.
As far as Schutze, I am not a fan of his and it is not because he went after my department. I researched him by reading various other publications of his and found him to be a wannabe version or Fox News Network's O'Reilly, Mr. "No Spin." Speaking from my own opinion, I really don’t think DART cares what he wrote, other than that it was a load of bull. Also, not speaking for DART, I think that it was just another person's 15 minutes of fame that faded into the woodwork.
I have no doubt that Channel 11 is credible, but the sad reality is that giving an event such as that the time of day lends credence to the claim. Even me giving Recent Coin's comments the time of day just validates his/her purpose. As I have said in the past, I am not for public forums, I just think that some people need to be put in check from time to time, especially when they speak publicly about things that they have limited knowledge.
I still enjoy reading the blogs on the site, even when they are fueled by inaccurate information. They are thought provoking and somewhat entertaining. But at times, the comments border on ridiculous, probably due to the writer having nothing else to complain about.
Anyway, if I did not adequately answer your question, feel free to email me.
[Ed Note: ...and you are always welcome to take issues with what people blog here--or blog here yourself. I would like an alternate perspective on DART on this site.
Every organization has its challenges. I know that it is tough to make the correct call every time (even Highland Park knows this all too well). However, it is how you approach those challenges that puts your organization in the top, bottom or somewhere in the middle.
I'm a bit concerned when I hear that DART is not concerned with what someone like Jim Schutze would write. Governmental organizations should be especially concerned about public image issues. What large bureaucracies have yet to learn (but they are learning) is that when you mess up, if you own up to it and react proactively (fix in place moving forward), little problems don't become big problems.
Jim is an exceptional writer. He has a talent for research like few other reporters I've seen. His articles are funny, informative, and he usually hits the nail square on the head--though sometimes he does, perhaps, draw different conclusions than I would draw. But that time he didn't. I hope the next time he comes calling, DART folks will be a little more receptive.
Thanks, again, for your input--and (again) we'd welcome your blogging here.]
Other People Who Think DART's Insecure
I've been accused of being the only one who's critical of DART and DART's safety measures. I did some Googling (thanks for suggesting it) and decided that I'd pull some comments from around the Internet just to prove that I'm not alone. I already know that I'm not alone. I hear it from friends, coworkers, and others, including non-DART police officers. I made a comment about riding the train to a local sheriff's deputy to which he replied, "I wouldn't do that if they issued us automatic weapons."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go8-6YDgvAk
http://metro.beloblog.com/archives/2007/09/dart_thugs.html
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/letters/stories/D...
http://www.city-data.com/forum/dallas/190564-northlake-estates-garland-7...
http://transitsource.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html
http://www.masstransitmag.com/article/article.jsp?id=249&siteSection=3
Thoughts on DART P.D.
I just thought that I would add my 2 cents into the discussion.
The DART system would be a VERY dangerous system if it was not for the DART Police Department. Getting rid of the Department is not an option.
What is an option though, is changing the command structure of DART Police.
The DART Police Department would be a great Department if they were backed by the DART Board of Directors and had a strong Command Staff. Many times, the Department has asked for equipment and personnel and been denied. Why? Because they do not want the public to think that there is crime on the system and that it might make the police department look "too aggressive".
The DART Police Department is not perfect, no law enforcement agency is. But, many of the problems that DART Police has been subjected to dates back a few years ago when the Department decided to start hiring people and sending the to the police academy. In the past, you had to have prior police experience in order to work there. You had to have worked for another police agency and already be certified by TCLEOSE in order to get hired. This changed when DART hired an Assistant Police Chief and sent him to the police academy. What you say? Hire someone to supervise police officers with no police experience? Yes, and now he is the Police Chief. Dont' get me wrong, the Chief is a good manager and had quite a bit of military experience under his belt, but there is a difference between military and police work.
There are (were) many very good and experienced Officers at DART that wanted nothing else than to make the best Department in the nation. When you do not have the support from your Supervisors, Managers, and Board of Directors, morale declines and Officers leave. A big part of police work has to do with trusting your partner. If you cannot trust the people you work with, would you want to stay? You have to be sure that your partner "has your back" at all times. There are so many inexperienced Officers there now, that I had to leave because the trust was not there. I wanted to make sure that I went home at the end of my shift.
There have been comments about complaints on Officers. The Supervisors at DART Police would go out and "solicit" complaints on Officers in order to try and fire someone. Complaints on Peace Officer and Firefighters in Texas have to be made in writing, signed by the complainant, and a copy given to the Officer. DART's way of this was to go out, find someone to complain, have a Supervisor put it in writing, investigate, and then dicipline them. There was even an Officer fired for catching a murder suspect because there was not any buses running at the time of the arrest and also accused him of excessive force in pepper spraying a subject that was trying to break out the window on his police car.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2002-11-28/news/by-the-book/full
DART has problems. Major ones. Both in Administration and in the Police Department. There are still a lot of very good and qualified Officers there. Well, at least until they leave like everyone else is. Does DART care that there is such a high turnover rate? Does not appear so. The Police Chief does not even care because he will tell you flat out like he did in detail one day "If you don't like it, leave". You need to boost morale in the Department, not reduce it.
Things have to change at the Department.
Oh well, my 2 cents.
Thoughts--DART
Wow!!! I concur with what you said, but I don’t think the problems have come just with the inexperienced officers. Years ago there was no background investigation process and the old Chief hired people based on interviews alone. That message got out to several people who were in trouble at their departments or had been fired from departments. Some of those officers came over and brought their problems with them. Some left them behind and became productive officers. With the police department conducting background investigations now, we are getting younger officers that we can mold into good officers, as opposed to getting problem children from other departments.
Another problem is that some officers get tired of watching other officers get away with things that will get a normal officer fired. We have all seen officers get fired for minor violations and then see another officer commit a more severe violation and they walk away with a slap on the wrist, if anything. To quote some officers, "There are a select few officers who can’t be fired no matter what they do." While this is not a wide spread problem, it is definitely something that affects morale.
As far as the Chief is concerned, I agree that it is definitely not in his favor that he has limited police experience, and I am not a fan of the "If you don’t like it...leave" quote; but I do know that there have been positive marks on his behalf. We have gone away from the days of the old Chief not wanting us to do any police work to the new Chief welcoming police work. At that same time, I have seen some decisions that have made me scratch my head and say, "What the #$%@?" Overall, I think we have moved forward, but we were already so far back that we need to move a light speed.
I hate that we have lost so many good officers to other departments. It is even sadder that there have been quite a few that took pay cuts to leave the department. I don’t know what it will take to finally get things up to speed, but I hope it happens soon. Until then, I will keep moving forward and hope for the best. Good luck to you and thank you for writing something positive about the rest of us.
NewGuy out.
DART P.D.'s Unanswered Phone
Exactly who does one contact report someone drinking an alcoholic liquid from an open container on either a bus or train?
I see this a lot, but I don't exactly see bus drivers "noticing" it or saying anything if they do (which wasn't the case in the last city where I lived, where it was like "hey buddy, I'm not losing my job for you, get off the bus now").
Also if one calls the main number for DART after "DART Business" hours, but during DART's hours of service and presses the appropriate telephone menu buttons, one does not get DART PD Dispatch, one gets Voice Mail!!!
I know because one night I left my keys on the bus and I tried calling DART Police and got some DART PD employee's Voice Mail box instead.
I was fortunate in that I live near the end of the line and that the bus wasn't going to the garage, so after waiting at the bus stop for the next bus in the opposite direction - there was the bus driver and he had my keys ready for me.
So when it isn't "life and death" but it is extremely important (I didn't want to camp out in my apartment building's lobby all night) and it isn't between 7AM and 7PM during the week or between 8AM and 5PM on the weekends, there should be a number to call that gets answered by a human being!
Oh and I used to live in a smaller city with a bigger transit system and I had the number for their Transit Police dispatch programmed in my cell phone. Even though I only really had to use it once, it was nice to know that a human being would answer the phone 24/7.
How To Reach DART PD
There are two ways to get in touch with the DART Police by phone:
DART PD Dispatch 214-928-6300 or through 911, via transfer from Dallas PD, or whatever city you are in.
I do not recommend the 911 since a person consuming alcohol is not necessarily an emergency situation. Just contact the DART Police through their dispatch number, give them the bus number and bus route number, give a description of the person or persons involved, and give a call back number. If the person gets off the bus, a call back will help for locating the offender.
Also, if you are on a train, the same procedure applies, just give a direction of travel (north or south), what train line you are on (red/blue/etc..), and the station you are heading to or just left. Again, a call back letting dispatch know if the person got off the train will help officers locate the offender.
Hope that helped you out. The DART PD Dispatch number is posted on trains, buses, and stations. The DART Police are on duty 24/7 and you will get a live voice when you call. Unfortunately, you either got the main DART line or the DART Police Headquarters line, of which you will most likely not get live voice after business hours.
NewGuy out.