Reneé Hall resigns from Dallas Police effective November 10, 2020. Hall’s tenure has been marred by an explosion in Dallas crime over the past two years that is breaking a decades’ old record for violent crime.
Hall has also pushed back against city council critics who want to defund the police budget.
A Deep Ellum fire broke out early Saturday morning at Pecan Lodge. Dallas Fire Rescue is currently investigating the cause of the fire.
Pecan Lodge had a similar early morning fire in 2016 due to what was described as a grease choked smokestack.
Pecan Lodge opened in spring 2010 and has won the praise of barbecue aficionados and has been named one of the city’s better restaurants. It has also been feature on the Food Network‘s Guy Fieri featured it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Pecan Lodge Not Only Deep Ellum Action
Dallas Police also responded to a shooting leaving one dead and five injured overnight in Deep Ellum.
Dallas murder rate is ahead of last year’s which broke a ten year record.
Street racing continues to show Dallas Police leadership exposed as unable to handle crime on any level. There is some focus on the data showing crime increasing beyond last year’s ten year record rate, but minor crime is rising too.
Per City Council Member Cara Mendelsohn “Chief Hall has been here for three years. She’s had opportunity and support to produce plans and produce results, I don’t think we’ve seen that.”
It is said nothing will happen until someone dies, but that does not seem to be the tipping point. In February, a Pleasant Grove man was pronounced dead after being hit by a car that was street racing. The crash happened on S. Masters Drive and Cushing Drive in Southeast Dallas. Police said 45-year-old Kendrick Lyons was ejected from his vehicle and died.
In April, more than 200 citations were issued during one weekend of street racing, but the problem of racing and stunt-like driving has caused multiple fatalities.
Last May, Olivia Mendez, an 8-year-old girl in Pleasant Grove, was killed when a racer struck the car she was a passenger in.
On Christmas Eve, an off-duty Dallas police officer, Joseph George, died after he lost control of his 2015 Ford Mustang while racing with another car, according to police. He was a four-year veteran of the department.
Murder Rate and Street Racing Symptoms Of Larger Problem
Council Member Mendelsohn cited 128 homicides in 2020, one more than the same time last year when Dallas has its worst year since the 1990s. Aggravated Assault not related to family violence is nearly 28% higher in Dallas this year compared to last.
One area of improvement: property. Property crimes are down in Dallas significantly. Some estimate this is due to COVID19 and the nuhmber of people staying home.
Did North Texas Jeep Club sucker punch Ram? According to one internal document the Texas Ram Club had the wool pulled over its eyes during the Sunday, August 2, 2020 for the Back The Blue car parade which ended at Friendship West Baptist Church. In a document obtained exclusively by Other Side Dallas, Texas Ram Club says North Texas Jeep Club claimed to have permission from Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, III. They did not.
In the document the Texas Ram Club admits they were initially denied as a rest stop location, but claim they later had permission.
Representatives of the group say they initially did not see the Black Lives Matter sign hanging from the church, entering the parking lot from a different direction, or they would not have entered given the recent interaction between the Dallas Police and members of the African American community.
They also state they noticed one driver who was displaying the confederate flag and asked that driver to remove it which the owner would not so they demanded he leave the lot. A second driver was approached about a Trump flag, but left before leadership could remove him. Accounts on scene indicated that there was more than one driver with either the confederate or Trump campaign flag, but those accounts are not addressed in this document.
Ram Club Comments, Code of Conduct, and Screesnhots
This is the Texas Rams Club Code of Conduct and photos from event.
Dallas Police
It is still unclear what role Dallas Police played at this event. Statements from the department indicate they knew this was a potential hotspot and had stationed undercover officers on site.
We will continue to report on issues with the Dallas Police Department as we did Sunday when this event first occured.
The All Lives Matter movement proved today they did not believe their own moniker. The Dallas Police Department provided a police escort to members of the North Texas Jeep Club and the Texas Ram Club who paraded their vehicles through the parking lot of the Friendship West Baptist Church.
At least two eyewitnesses reported the vehicles were flying both Blue Lives Matter and Confederate flags through the predominantly African American congregation church parking lot. Additional reports state that the police blocked in congregants who were then not able to leave the area.
It is unclear what role Dallas Police Department played in today’s “protest” or whether or not anyone on Dallas City Council is willing to take on City Manager TC Broadnax or Police Chief Reneé Hall.
“All Lives Matter” Per Dallas Police
According to one regular Black Lives Matter protestor, Lee Daughterty, this fits history.
Daugherty said in a Facebook post that “…the cops and the Klan will always be hand in hand.”
No one from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (representing both Jeep and Ram) has responded to requests for comments about the presence of North Texas Jeep Club .
*** UPDATE ***
Joyce Foreman, District 7 Trustee for the Dallas Independent School District, posted that a protest will begin tonight at 6:00 PM in front of the police department at 1400 S Lamar Street, Dallas, TX.. We will continue to update details as they become available.
A Dallas Police Officer Charged With Child Sexual Exploitation by the US Attorney for Northern Texas. Officer Daniel Collins has been charged with uploading sexually explicit images of children using the City of Dallas’ employee internet, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.
“Law enforcement officers take an oath to protect and serve,” said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox. “This defendant allegedly undermined that vow, preying upon our most vulnerable. The Department of Justice will not tolerate the exploitation of children – especially by our public servants.”
A complaint is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Collins – who has been placed on administrative leave by the police department pending the results of an internal investigation – is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Child Sexual Exploitation Case
According to court documents, Mr. Collins allegedly uploaded sexually explicit photos of prepubescent girls to his various Google accounts via the City of Dallas’ internet network.
Google flagged the images – one uploaded on May 13 to an account tagged “Dan Collins” and two more uploaded on June 29 to an account tagged “John Smith” – to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which filed a Cyber Tipline report with the Dallas Police Department. In the report, they noted that one of the profiles included a photo of a man in a police uniform, later determined to be Mr. Collins.
A Dallas IT specialist traced the IP addresses used for the uploads to the City of Dallas internet network. Investigators determined that the same Google accounts were also accessed from Mr. Collin’s residence.
In an interview with federal agents, Mr. Collins allegedly admitted to accessing the Google accounts and saving child pornography.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Dallas Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem is prosecuting the case.
DPA President Mata has been cleared by a grand jury. They have decided not to indict Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata on a charge of tampering with evidence in the September 2018 Botham Jean murder investigation.
DPA President Mata and The Botham Jean/Amanda Guyger Case
The issue in question related to Mata’s actions during the investigation of the Botham Jean murder. Immediately after the shooting, Mata asked that a dash cam be turned off while talking to then-Officer Amber Guyger in a patrol car outside the apartment where it happened.
Mata attorney Robert Rodgers said in a statement, “It is a tremendous relief that things like the constitution, law and facts still matter. Mike Mata did absolutely nothing wrong in protecting an officer’s rights.”
During the Amber Guyger murder trial, prosecutors used security camera video to suggest the Dallas Police Association acted improperly when Mata arrived on the scene after the shooting. He is seen leaning into a patrol car Guyger was sitting in the back of and told another officer to turn off a dash cam while Guyger was on the phone with her attorney.
The Texas Fraternal Order Of Police President Steve Stribley said in a statement back in October 2019, they support Mata, saying he responded to the Guyger shooting in his capacity as President of the Dallas Police Association and he had a legal responsibility to request recording devices in a squad car to be turned off as Guyger was going to talk to her attorney on the phone.
A DPD Officer arrested in Fort Worth has an interesting history. Dallas police officer, Senior Corporal Daniel Collins, was arrested Thursday on a charge of transportation of child pornography, officials said. According to his Facebook page he appears to also be a self avowed “ISIS hunter.”
Senior Corporal Daniel Collins was arrested by Homeland Security Investigations and was booked into the Tarrant County Jail.
Collins has worked with the Dallas Police Department since July 2007 and was assigned to the auto theft unit.
Dallas police officials say Collins is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs administrative investigation.
Another DPD Officer Arrested
This is another officer being arrested in Tarrant County giving rise to the question why Dallas does not require its employees to be part of the community they are employed to serve.
His Facebook page has references to being both an ISIS Hunter and a photo of an officer caring for a child. These images of being a protector when possibly being a danger to children are disturbing on multiple levels.
There are currently multiple accounts of what happened on the bridge from Chief Hall’s statements at the time, City Council Members who have backed her account, and citizen protestors who suffered the attack. A question exists about decision making and who had authority to make decisions. This includes why Lt. Brian Payne, an officer previously arrested in Ft. Worth for a road rage incident, was in charge of arrests on the bridge that night.
Another, bigger, question though is why is does this poor decision making continue to pervade the City of Dallas and its police department. Example? Lieutenant Brian William Deininger.
Deininger is currently assigned to teach the Standard Field Sobriety Testing program at the Dallas Police Department Academy. The problem with that is he was found unresponsive in his vehicle less than a year ago with multiple open containers of beer, not remembering how he got there, and denying medical any relevant medical history.
Granted mistakes happen to all of us and persons are innocent until convicted, but aren’t officers supposed to be held to a higher standard given the position they are placed in daily?
According to one police officer we spoke with, Deininger is an example of the problems with DPD right now.
DPD requires you, as a Dallas Police Officer, to be cooperative in any investigation by any other agency, especially if you’re a suspect. While Irving Police Department may have been doing him a favor or “helping him out” as this commander suggests by charging him with Public Intoxication and not Driving While Intoxicated, it is clear Deininger was not fully cooperative.
The officer continues “Brian is most certainly asking for preferential treatment when they’re asking him to preform SFST’s. Since he refused and it’s on camera that he refused he should have been terminated.” It is unclear why the Internal Affairs Division did not take further action, but both officers and suspects have complained about the IAD complaint process.
After watching the video, it seems clear Deininger is asking for preferential treatment saying he would handle it any way the officer wanted to handle it. He knows the procedure that should be followed – though he may have been too intoxicated to follow it.
DPD Lt. Brian Deininger
This was not Deininger’s first brush with other law enforcement though. In 2011 he was a suspect in a domestic violence case. It is unclear if Dallas’ thin blue line assisted in the choking case in the 2800 block of McKinney Avenue, but charges were dropped when the victim chose not to press charges – common in domestic violence cases.
The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge incident may seem like an isolated case, but it appears DPD has an ongoing problem both recruiting officers and maintaining their understanding of laws and regulations that apply to them. They clearly can pass tests administered by the state, but can they follow common sense and make good decisions while on the beat?
The George Floyd Protests are exposing issues not only in May and June 2020, but a longer record of problems within the department that go beyond a singular event or police chief. The question is will Reneé Hall stay defensive about her command tenure or will she work to correct these problems that are evident for everyone to see.
Dallas Police Department discipline is clearly lacking.
A leaked copy of the After Action Report made its way to Central Track this morning. While it is a draft, it represents an ongoing lack of discipline in the City of Dallas and the Police Department.
In a statement to Central Track from City Manager TC Broadnax and Police Chief Renee Hall they said, “The City Manager’s Office and DPD will continue to be transparent and thorough to avoid misinformation.“
The statement itself is concerning because they do not reflect on the fact that Chief Hall states no tear gas (CS) was used on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. She lied to City Council previously and the City Manager stood with his employee in a contentious City Council meeting in June.
The lies from that night were amplified by Council Member Omar Narvaez.
We think DMagazine misspelled “lie.”It appears “progressive” stalwart Omar Narvaez stands with Dallas Police Department over peaceful protestors. Why?
Dallas Police Department Discipline Issues Ongoing
Several issues exist with this report. One major issue from the “draft” report is why was a lieutenant was running the scene? Remember, Chief Hall was “kicking back” during police operations and did not take command of the incident in any way.
Chief Hall’s lack of involvement left a lieutenant in charge of the operation.
Lieutenant Brian Payne is listed as the person running the arrest operation on the bridge. What isn’t listed is a report from two Dallas Police employees that this is the same Brian Payne who was arrested in the Fort Worth area approximately a decade ago after a road rage incident over a Walmart parking space. Was this the right person to run this operation given his history of poor anger management?
Congratulations to Central Track. Like our frequent reports on Dallas Police here and here among others, we are hoping shining a little light on an otherwise toxic department might help clean it out.
Dallas Police Department’s Public Information Officers have not responded to emails requesting comment.
