The Dallas Morning News
By Miles Moffeit
5:30 AM on Jul 26, 2023

Dallas civil rights leaders are calling on city officials to reform how the police handle cases of brutality, saying it is time for a reckoning.

Dallas District Attorney John Creuzot said he supports developing a system with police that allows prosecutors to evaluate excessive force complaints to determine whether they should be investigated as crimes.

Brandon Friedman, a member of the city’s police oversight board, said Dallas, as the ninth largest department in the country, should prioritize bringing its internal investigations up to federal standards.

Their recent statements came in response to The Dallas Morning News’ first installment of its Black & Blue series examining the city’s history of police violence and its impact on people of color.

The story disclosed how at least eight of the department’s internal investigative practices fail to meet guidelines recommended by the U.S. Department of Justice. It also documented how 10 substandard police investigations into allegations of brutality against Officer Christopher Hess allowed him to escape discipline for over a decade until he fatally shot Genevive Dawes, a Latina mom of two toddlers, violating multiple policies.

Over the last two months, Dallas police Chief Eddie Garcia, who joined the department in 2021, declined multiple requests to discuss The News’ findings as well as Hess’ deadly career path. He cited litigation. For the last six years, the city has defended Hess and itself against a federal wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the Dawes family.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, City Manager T.C. Broadnax and City Council members also have stayed mum about The News’ findings.

Before reforms can happen, Dallas’ city officials must first begin conversations about holding violent officers accountable, civil rights leaders say.

“There is total silence among City Council members, and that is shameful,’’ said Changa Higgins, founder of the Dallas Action Coalition, which helped spearhead the city’s Community Police Oversight Board in 2019. “Now is the time to start addressing problems instead of just kicking the can down the road until the city explodes after the next tragedy.”

Dominique Alexander, president of the Next Generation Action Network, said city leaders owe the public an explanation about why they are legally defending Hess when the city allowed his violence to go unchecked for 10 years.

The city has argued in court that Hess deserves qualified immunity, a legal shield that protects police from liability if they do not knowingly violate the Constitution.

“How does the council justify fighting the Dawes family?’’ Alexander asked, adding that the council appears to allow the city attorney’s office to pursue legal actions without weighing the greater moral position. “Why does the city defend monstrous behavior?’’

Over the last two weeks, members of at least a half-dozen civil rights organizations have been brainstorming strategies to address failures in Dallas police accountability.

Some solutions are obvious, Changa, Alexander and others said. The city’s oversight office needs more funding, staffing and power. It currently employs only one investigator and, under city rules, the office cannot launch inquiries until police have completed their own internal investigations.

The city could start by bringing Dallas police’s internal investigative practices up to Justice Department standards, they said. Dallas, for example, does not require its detectives to have investigative experience and has no written protocol for when detectives should consult with prosecutors on brutality cases, as recommended in federal guidelines.

The News found little indication that police detectives who investigated Hess took basic steps, such as interviewing those who brought brutality complaints, seeking out witnesses or meeting with prosecutors to gauge whether his aggression rose to a crime.

When police obtained video evidence in 2016 of Hess punching, kneeing and dragging a Black man he had pulled over, the department left him on patrol instead of sharing the footage with the Dallas DA’s office to pursue criminal charges. Experts who reviewed the footage for The News called it torture. In the months afterward, witnesses said, Hess beat another man, and investigators, for the 10th time, cleared him. Fifteen days later, Hess killed Dawes.

Hess, who has declined to comment on The News’ investigation, said he feared for officers’ safety.

Creuzot told The News he is in favor of entering into a memorandum of understanding with the police department so that all excessive force complaints are scrutinized by prosecutors.

David Henderson, a civil rights lawyer, and Peter Johnson, founder of the Institute for Non-Violence in Dallas, said they also hope the city creates a diverse task force of community members to improve how the department handles excessive force complaints.

“I can’t believe the city hasn’t created one already,’’ Henderson said. “We have to demand accountability now. We may have to be more organized. But the authorities have to take us seriously. Dallas deserves better.’’

Johnson said city officials also cannot meaningfully address policing problems without discussing how race plays a role. People of color made up the majority of those who said Hess abused them. The News found the same trend in the complaint histories of two other high-profile Dallas officers, Sgt. Roger Rudloff and Officer Frederick Frazier.

“The truth is that racism in Dallas policing is historically at the root of many of these problems,’’ Johnson said. “Someone in city leadership has to have the courage to talk about that.’’

This week, numerous Dallas civil rights and cultural groups are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the murder of 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez by Dallas police Officer Darrell Cain. He was the last officer to be indicted for a fatal shooting, in 1973, before Hess was charged in 2017.

Like Hess, Cain had a history of violence before killing Rodriguez. The city of Dallas never compensated the Rodriguez family – a point brought up during a ceremony for Rodriguez on Sunday evening at Pike Park.

John Fullinwider, co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, said Dallas leaders have a unique opportunity to depart from past practices and help the Dawes family by taking responsibility for Hess’ actions.

“Dallas police hired and trained Cain and Hess,’’ Fullinwider said. “They ignored their violent behavior, and when they ultimately killed someone, the city denied responsibility and refused to assist these families. That has got to change.’’

Fullinwider hopes The News’ investigation will prompt city officials to break out of “political cowardice” and take action.

“Dallas has never had a reckoning for a half-century of racialized police violence,’’ Fullinwider said. “We need a reckoning for Genevive Dawes sure, but also for the young people of Dallas that they not lose hope as they struggle for a better life.’’

Said Friedman, the oversight board member: “There’s no reason a top-tier city like Dallas should not have the highest standards for its police force. Honestly, anyone who opposes raising standards of professionalism for law enforcement, I gotta ask: Why?’’

Sol Villasana, a lawyer and former assistant city attorney for Dallas who has helped raise awareness of the Rodriguez family’s plight over the decades, said Mayor Johnson should address the public soon.

“I would ask him to consider that our citizenry deserves transparency about problems with our Police Department,’’ Villasana said.