Deaths of Officers Rawlings and Daniels On 15 August 1899 at about four in the morning, two Dallas police officers killed each other in what was described in the press as a duel. Officer Albert P Rawlings and Officer Charles A Daniels killed each other at the corner of Main and Poydras streets. The two men had a long-standing grudge.
Murder of Santos Rodriguez Early in the morning of July 24, 1973, Dallas police officers Darrell L. Cain and Roy Arnold were investigating a burglary, from a vending machine, of eight dollars. Two children, twelve-year-old Santos Rodriguez and thirteen-year-old David Rodriguez were taken from their home and brought to the scene of the crime. In an attempt to frighten Santos into confessing, Officer Cain, thinking he had emptied his service revolver of all its
ammunition, aimed it at the boy and pulled the trigger twice. The second time, the gun discharged killing Santos, who was still handcuffed. Cain was found guilty of murder by a jury in November 1973 and sentenced to five years in prison. He served half of it. The City of Dallas apologized to the Rodriguez family forty years later.
Robert Powell On March 18, 2009, NFL player
Ryan Moats's
mother-in-law, Jonetta Collinsworth, died from
breast cancer. Moats, his wife Tamisha (Collinsworth's daughter) and other family members rushed to Baylor Regional Medical Center in
Plano, Texas, when they were informed that she was close to death. After driving through a red light, Officer Powell issued an apology to Moats. Police officials investigated Powell's actions; he was placed on administrative leave but later resigned from the department. After Moats' incident with Officer Powell, former Cowboy
Zach Thomas acknowledged that Powell was the same officer who handcuffed and jailed his wife Maritza after she was pulled over for making an illegal
u-turn in July 2008.
Fake drug scandal Beginning on December 31, 2001, the local
ABC-affiliate,
WFAA, began broadcasting a series of investigative reports alleging that hundreds of pounds of
cocaine and
methamphetamine seized by undercover officers of the DPD Narcotics Division during 2001 were actually not illegal substances.
Killing of Tony Timpa On August 10, 2016, Dallas Police killed Tony Timpa, a 32-year-old resident who had called 911 for aid, telling the dispatcher that he had schizophrenia and depression but not taken his prescription medication. Timpa was already handcuffed when a group of officers restrained him on the ground while he squirmed, repeatedly crying out, "You're gonna kill me!". After he fell unconscious, the officers assumed he was asleep and, rather than confirm that he was breathing or feel for a pulse, joked about waking him up for school and making him breakfast. They kept him prone on grass for nearly 14 minutes and zip-tied his legs together, one pressing his knee into Timpa's back. One of the paramedics called to the scene administered the sedative Versed. The responders began to panic only as they loaded Timpa's body onto a gurney, one exclaiming, "He didn’t just die down there, did he?" Timpa died within 20 minutes of police officers' arrival, of "cocaine and the stress associated with physical restraint", according to his autopsy. It took over three years for footage of the incident to be released. The footage contradicted claims by Dallas Police that Timpa was aggressive. The officers involved were Sgt. Kevin Mansell and Officers Danny Vasquez and Dustin Dillard. Criminal charges against three officers were dropped in March 2019 and they returned to active duty.
Murder of Botham Jean . On September 6, 2018, Dallas patrol officer Amber Guyger, in uniform but off duty after a daylong shift, entered the apartment of Botham Jean and shot and killed him. Guyger said that she had entered the apartment believing it was her own and shot Jean believing he was a burglar. She then called 911. Jean was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died from his wound. The investigation was taken over by the
Texas Rangers, who were responsible for Guyger's arrest three days later. Guyger was charged with
manslaughter, a 2nd degree felony in Texas, which carries a sentence of 2 to 20 years in a state prison and/or a fine not to exceed $10,000. On September 24, Guyger was terminated from the police force, after being placed on
administrative leave since the shooting. Following the shooting, an attorney representing Jean's family accused the Dallas police department of smearing Jean's reputation. The lawyers also disputed the account of the incident that Guyger told officials, which was recorded in the arrest warrant
affidavit, and asserted that two independent witnesses had come forward to give recollections that conflict with Guyger's account. On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on murder charges by a Dallas County
grand jury. On September 22, 2019, the day before the trial began, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot took part in an interview regarding the trial in spite of a gag order issued by Judge Tammy Kemp in January of that year. After questioning jurors, who reported that they had not seen the interview or other media coverage of the trial, Kemp denied the defense's motion for a mistrial, and sequestered the jury. On October 1, 2019, Guyger was found guilty of murder. On October 2, 2019, Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison. On October 5, it was revealed that Joshua Brown, a key witness for the prosecution, was killed after being shot more than once the previous night. Despite speculation about the motive behind Brown's killing, the slaying had nothing to do with the Jean case.
Murder of Liza Saenz and Albert Douglas Bryan Riser was a former 13-year veteran on the
Dallas police force. He was arrested on March 4, 2021, for the two unconnected murders of Liza Saenz and Albert Douglas in 2017. Riser was charged with two counts of capital murder. One of the men connected with the murder of Saenz told police that he and Riser had been connected with burglaries and that Riser had paid him and others $3,500 to kidnap and kill Albert Douglas, then later promised $6,000 to kill Saenz. Bryan Riser was later reinstated but resigned right after in July of 2024. He currently has pending lawsuit against the Detective who made the arrest without probable cause. Chief Garcia left department right after in August of 2024.
Corruption The actions of the Dallas Police has been the subject of controversy over the years, with various convictions being overturned. Several of these were attributed to the actions of Captain
Will Fritz, who was a Klux Klun member and District Attorney
Henry Wade, who was posthumously exposed for his corruption. Craig Watkins, the first black American DA for Dallas County, described the Dallas police' tenure as having "a cowboy kind of mentality and the reality is that kind of approach is archaic, racist, elitist and arrogant." Watkins said in a 2010 interview in The Guardian that officers from his own jurisdiction "were taken aback because we were calling in to question the work they had done for all these years. It was the same among some folks in this office. They were afraid of the consequences of this Pandora's box being opened." In 2026,
Tommy Lee Walker, who was reportedly intimidated by Fritz and threatened with a beatup, was symbolically exonerated, albeit the decision is not legally binding. == Rank structure and Insignia ==