By Tristan Hallman
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Dallas Police Chief David Brown said Monday that his tenure could be living on prayers.
Days after some council members at least pushed for his retirement, Brown, who is religious but doesn’t often talk about his faith, immediately invoked his Christianity during an impromptu news conference. He said he “is praying for reconciliation, for understanding and for forgiveness” and called for similar prayers from people of faith in Dallas.
“It’s how I react to challenging times,” Brown said.
That challenge went from closed doors to out in the open on Friday after some details of a private meeting between three council members — Scott Griggs, Adam Medrano and Erik Wilson — and City Manager A.C. Gonzalez became public.
Mayor Mike Rawlings said Friday that the council members had actually demanded Brown’s firing or resignation with intent to retire by the year’s end. Griggs and Medrano denied that was the case, but acknowledged they talked about Brown’s retirement.
Brown, a Dallas native, havs been the chief since 2010. He waded into City Hall on Monday and acknowledged Monday that the average chief tenure is much shorter, and that by comparison he seems to be on “borrowed time.” But he took on critics and vowed that he’d start to fight for higher officer salaries.
During the committee meeting Monday, Brown stood at a podium, which is unusual for him. But he relied on well-worn talking points: those who question crime stats are gossipers who have no evidence and that he has to hold people accountable, that slow non-emergency response times are because of better training and more deescalation, and that the often-trumpeted crime decline “continues to be the greatest crime story never told,” he said.
Brown also said some officers don’t like that, as chief, he has to hold them accountable when they screw up.
Executive Assistant Chief David Pughes also said the department hoped to open more communication with officers at their stations.
Brown said he has made efforts to improve morale. Brown said he had been riding patrol with officers recently to get a beat on what the department could do better. He also he’d remain silent no longer on pay increases as salary negotiations between first responder associations and the city begin.
“These men and women deserve to be paid commensurate with other cities in the area,” Brown said.
The briefing was supposed to be an update about crime stats. The presentation did so, but Brown did not address how violent crime, especially robbery, remains up this year versus last year.
Vice Chairman Adam McGough told Brown he’d have the council’s support when he is managing resources to deal with crime.
Council member Philip Kingston, an ally of Griggs and Medrano, commented that Brown had gone off the agenda and questioned his speech.
“Who are the critics you mentioned?” Kingston asked.
“I don’t understand the question,” Brown replied.
Kingston again asked who the critics are. Brown replied, “I have no idea.”
“If you have no idea, I’ll just call that a straw man,” Kingston said.
Griggs questioned the crime statistics when he was on the committee last year. A previous investigation by The Dallas Morning News also found the declines were exaggerated by changes in reporting practices.
Brown didn’t have to face Medrano, the committee chair, who didn’t show up.
Brown said afterward that his speech wasn’t a reaction to last week’s turmoil. He said he did not know exactly what happened so he couldn’t react to that.
Dallas Police Association Ron Pinkston said it was nice to hear Brown support pay increases, but faulted the chief for waiting five years to join the fight.
Pinkston said Brown made “a lot of excuses” for the police department’s morale and performance.
Pinkston stopped short of saying the association could no longer work with the chief. He instead said, “we have to have a different management style” at the police department.
Homicide Sgt. Cletus Judge, the president of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, also showed up at the council meeting. Judge said he supports Brown and faulted officers who don’t want to be held accountable.
Brown, Judge said, “is firm but he’s fair.”
After the committee meeting, activist Juanita Wallace led a small, short rally of local activists who support Brown. Wallace, who has known Brown for 30 years, said the chief’s emphasis on community relations have made him a “game-changer.”
“We don’t need to run him away,” she said. “And when he decides to go, let him go on his own terms. But we will not allow people to mar his legacy with some foolishness.”
Coypright 2015 The Dallas Morning News