By Henry Tatum -- Asst. Editorial Page Editor, The Dallas Morning News
The police officers never questioned what they had to do when they heard the sounds coming from inside a locked bedroom in the southwest Dallas apartment.
Aware that small children were being held hostage inside the bedroom, the officers knew that the choking noises they heard demanded immediate action.
Sgt. Michael Flusche, Senior Cpl. Michael Patino, Officer Douglas Brady and Officer Edward E. Coffey burst through the door only to be met with a blast from a shotgun.
As deadly as the situation was in November, the officers’ first thoughts were of the children and Francisco Fuentes, who already had killed two men. It never dawned on them that they might be the focus of a raging debate over the city’s controversial new policy that limits recuperation from on-duty injuries to 13 weeks.
Thanks to the generosity of longtime Dallas civic leader Pete Schenkel, the officers received financial help even after their disability payments ran out. Only Sgt. Flusche and Officer Brady are still on leave.
Mr. Schenkel’s decision to establish a fund for the officers appropriately embarrassed some members of the Dallas City Council.
But the Dallas Citizens Police Review Board upped the ante last week when it urged council members to review their decision to trim supplemental disability pay for injured officers from one year to about three months.
Former council member Al Lipscomb, who some assumed would be no ally of the police because of his own brushes with the law, was one of the toughest review board critics of the policy.
If Dallas residents want to understand the morale problems within the police ranks, they don’t have to look much further than the cut in disability payments. Few issues have angered officers more than the council’s decision in October to leave them out on a limb if they are injured protecting the public and can’t return to work within 13 weeks.
Council members now intend to revisit their decision. But the interim steps considered to address the issue seem more like an effort by the city to buy more time. As a temporary solution, City Manager Ted Benavides proposed using the Police and Fire Welfare Fund, created in 1963, to provide supplemental pay to the wounded officers.
But tensions are so high at City Hall that Mayor Laura Miller and some council members criticized Mr. Benavides for not letting them know the fund existed. The fund, which was established shortly after Dallas police Officer J.D. Tippitt was killed during the search for Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963, has about $470,000.
Regardless how the City Council feels, dipping into the Police and Fire Welfare Fund is no solution to the current dilemma. The officers deserve to know what the city intends to do long after stopgap measures such as the fund or contributions from people such as Mr. Schenkel have run out.
Mayor Miller is willing to reverse the decision if council members can find a way to replenish the $1 million it will cost to extend disability pay for a year. The mayor is trying to take a practical approach to a complex financial issue. But when it comes to officers hurt in the line of duty, practical generally doesn’t cut it with the public.
Mr. Schenkel, who tried to remain anonymous when he set up a plan to start paying the injured officers, said all citizens owe a debt to the police for the job they do.
It’s hard to argue with that sentiment. And as Dallas searches for a new police chief, it is hard to see how the next person in that job can rally officers who are so at odds with elected city officials.
Some council members are suggesting a new insurance policy for public safety officers. Others are asking City Attorney Madeleine Johnson to brief them on how to address the dilemma.
Whatever path the council members choose, it must be better than the one they are on now. Wounded officers turning to donors for help isn’t the image City Hall should want to project. And it certainly isn’t the right message for the next police chief, who hopes to take this department to a higher level.
Henry Tatum is an assistant editorial page editor of The Dallas Morning News. His e-mail address is htatum@dallasnews.com.