The Dallas City Council voted to scrap its college credit requirement for police recruits to boost hiring.
DALLAS — The Dallas City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to alter its police hiring standards, eliminating its college credit requirement.
The decision comes as the department faces pressure to hire more officers. Voters passed Proposition U in November, requiring the City to maintain a police force with at least 4,000 officers. The Dallas Police Department hasn’t had more than 3,700 officers dating back to 2010, but recently surpassed 3,200 officers for the first time since 2017.
Under the change, Dallas Police Department recruits will no longer need any college credit hours, only a high school diploma or GED and three years of full-time work experience.
“I will say this, if it turns out that this is highly successful, the applicants from this have passed the academy… we might even be able to go lower,” Dallas City Council member Cara Mendelsohn said. “I think the committee will absolutely consider that.”
Mendelsohn explained that the new standards were thoroughly vetted in committee and had support from DPD.
Representatives for the department pitched the new hiring standards as a way to get more local youth who may not have had access to higher education.
“As we strive to make our city the safest city in America, we have to look at officers and applicants that come from every part of our community,” DPD Assistant Chief Israel Herrera told council members. “So absolutely, we want everybody who is from Dallas to eventually come back and serve in the community that they grew up in.”
New recruits will earn 43 to 45 college credit hours by the time they graduate from the academy, thanks to a partnership with UNT Dallas.
The City will monitor the program’s success in increments of 12, 18 and 24 months.