DALLAS — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a new lawsuit accuses Dallas officials of violating a voter-approved measure aimed at significantly beefing up the city’s police force.
The background: With a ballot initiative known as Proposition U, Dallas voters in 2024 amended the city charter to require hundreds more police officers and additional tax dollars for policing and public safety pensions. Supporters of the ballot measure portrayed the city as experiencing high crime and public disorder — though crime in Dallas has fallen from pandemic-era highs, and the city gained national attention for anti-crime efforts that drove that decrease.
Under the charter amendment, Dallas leaders must set aside at least half of any new revenue the city gets each year into the city’s public safety pensions, and use anything left over to hire more officers and boost starting salaries for new officers. The charter amendment mandates that the city must have at least 4,000 sworn police officers — and to maintain that officer-to-resident ratio should the city’s population grow…