Dallas HERO threatens lawsuit to force Dallas Police Department to hire more cops​on March 31, 2025 at 3:39 pm

DALLAS — The upstart group behind the controversial Dallas city charter amendment that requires the city to maintain a force of at least 4,000 police officers sent notification Monday alleging that the city isn’t complying with the requirement and threatening to take the city to court over it.

Proposition U, one of two city charter amendments backed by Dallas HERO and passed by voters in November, requires the city to maintain a force of at least 4,000 officers. Dallas HERO alleged in a notification of claim Monday that the city had a force of 3,169 officers as of Feb. 7, 2025 – 831 short of what Prop U requires. Proposition U also requires earmarking at least 50% of new revenue each year to fund the Dallas Police and Fire Pension fund.

“Prop U is not a suggestion. It’s part of the city’s charter, placed there by the will of the voters. Compliance is not optional. And, City Hall has been flagrantly disregarding this legal mandate since it passed last November,” Dallas HERO Executive Director Damien LeVeck said in a statement. “If Dallas leaders do not imminently make meaningful, good faith efforts to comply with the city’s charter, we are prepared to take them to court. Our understaffed police department is fighting enough lawlessness on our streets. We cannot and will not tolerate it at City Hall.”

Back in late February, the Dallas City Council set a new hiring target for the Dallas Police Department of about 300 officers this fiscal year. That gets the department closer to meeting the requirements of Proposition U. At that time, interim police chief Michael Igo said the new targets would be difficult to reach and would likely mean taking some officers off patrol, at least temporarily, for the training program.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my team is working extremely hard to fill recruit classes,” Igo previously told the city council. “If it was as simple as snapping my fingers to get the recruits in we would do that in a heartbeat.”

Dallas HERO, an organization backed by a GOP donor, said in the letter that the city has 60 days to meet the requirement, or until May 30, 2025, or face potential litigation.

It’s not the first time Dallas HERO has threatened to sue the city.

Monty Bennett, a hotelier and GOP donor who’s supported the Dallas HERO initiative, previously said the group may sue the city to force compliance with Proposition U back in January.

Bennett is also the publisher of the Dallas Express, which, before the November election, published no fewer than 20 articles on Dallas HERO’s proposals since mid-July of last year.

In December, Dallas HERO also alleged the city has failed to enforce a state law forbidding camping on public property and threatened to sue over it.