Proposed City Budget Gives Boost to Dallas Police Department

DALLAS — Dallas’ proposed $5.2 billion budget significantly boosts funding for the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue, which would maintain their status as the highest-funded city agencies.

The budgets total $1.2 billion combined in City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert’s proposal. That is a 5% increase from the spending plans approved last year.

The additional funding comes amid new chiefs joining the force and more pressure from residents to improve public safety. Police services finished only behind city infrastructure maintenance as priorities in resident surveys earlier this year.

Next year’s budget is the first since Dallas voters last fall approved a city charter change mandating increased annual police-related spending to shore up the pension, push starting pay and benefits to be among the top five in Dallas, Collin, Denton, Rockwall and Tarrant counties, and have a police force of at least 4,000 officers. The city has more than 3,200 police officers and aims to hit 4,000 in 2029.

“I think it’s about how do we address what matters most to the people that we serve,” Tolbert said Friday, referencing Proposition U, the charter change with police-related mandates. “I don’t see them as demands. I see those as these are the things that are now the priorities.”

She also noted that while the community survey plays a role in identifying key city priorities, not all important issues may rank at the top. Other parts of the general fund, which pay for the majority of city services, will likely have to offset the increases to the police and fire departments, city officials said Friday.

The city is currently proposing to cut 100 jobs currently filled by employees and shift dozens of other vacant positions to the police department to pay for new hires.

The latest budget will cover city spending plans from October through September 2026. The police department has a proposed budget of $758 million, up from the $719 million adopted last year. Dallas Fire-Rescue is proposed to have a $453 million budget, up from $429 million.

Dallas plans to hire 350 new police officers and aims to retain enough officers to have around 3,400 by fall 2026. The city is budgeting almost $14.6 million alone to hire 350 police officers, budget documents show. Meanwhile, the city is looking to maintain around 3,200 firefighters.

The new officers are expected to help the department improve response times. According to police data, officers on average responded faster to emergency calls this June than at the same time last June and faster than their year-to-date averages in 2024 and in 2025. But the tally still isn’t hitting department goals.

DPD’s goal for responding to the most serious 911 calls, known as priority 1 calls, is within eight minutes. In June, the average was 10 minutes. The goal for responding to priority 4 calls, the lowest emergency level, is within one hour. In June, the average was five hours.

Salaries, pensions and overtime costs are the largest expenses for both police and fire departments.

The city proposes increasing starting pay for both cops and firefighters to $81,232, up from $75,397.

“If we have had recent officers hired in either two of those departments that are below that starting compensation, we would also be bringing them up,” Tolbert told The Dallas Morning News on Friday.

The city also aims to fund the Police and Fire Pension System fully within 30 years. They plan to gradually increase contributions based on actuarial calculations rather than using a fixed rate.

According to the latest budget, the city plans to contribute $221 million to the Police and Fire Pension System starting this fall. That is an increase from around $202 million this fiscal year and $184 million the previous year.

The latest budget draft as of Friday forecasts that the city will bump up contributions to around $240 million starting in fall 2026, $261 million the following fiscal year and continue ramping up annual funding up to almost $295 million starting in fall 2030.

On the overtime front, the city forecasts the police department will be $2.7 million under its nearly $59 million overtime budget for police officers at the end of this fiscal year in September. The latest police overtime budget for next year is set at $47 million, with the almost $12 million reduction cited because of the planned increase in hiring of police officers.

The city projects the fire department will need nearly $3.3 million more than its $28 million overtime budget for firefighters. The latest proposed overtime budget for Dallas Fire-Rescue is $20 million.

Dallas’ police and fire departments routinely exceed their overtime budgets, and uniform workers are among the city’s top earners of extra work pay. The city’s top police and fire officials last year told the City Council that their departments’ high overtime costs likely will only decrease when they have more staff.

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