A Dallas police corporal with 49 commendations and nearly two decades on the force says she was pulled off frontline fugitive apprehensions not because of her performance, but because of her size. Cpl. Kimberly Howard and Officer Meredith Leftwich have sued the Dallas Police Department, alleging they were shuffled into “semi-operational” roles, barred from entry teams, and subjected to demeaning comments from male colleagues who questioned whether women belonged on high-risk warrant sweeps at all.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges the two officers were unexpectedly removed from entry teams and barred from taking leads in high-risk apprehension cases, according to the Dallas Observer. Male officers reportedly attributed Howard’s reassignment to her “physical stature,” while another female officer in the unit was described as “too nice to pull the trigger,” the suit alleges. Howard has served in the fugitive unit and its predecessor since 2012, and Leftwich has served there since 2022 — the unit’s officers are tasked with apprehending violent and high-risk suspects with outstanding warrants as part of DPD’s tactical division, which also oversees SWAT and the K9 unit.
Five Women, Four Demotions
According to the filing, five women had previously worked in fully operational roles within the fugitive unit, and all four female line officers were placed on the semi-operational list in March 2025. The suit alleges neither Howard nor Leftwich was told of any performance deficiencies before that reassignment, even as their immediate supervisors were informed of the change. Semi-operational status allegedly kept the officers away from entry teams and relegated them to perimeter duties instead.
Fugitive unit commander Maj. Gerald Smalley approached the head of the department’s Tactical Training Group in January 2025 with concerns about unit members, the lawsuit alleges, and a TTG commander later admitted under oath that a list sorting officers into operational, semi-operational and administrative categories was made at Smalley’s direction. The suit alleges TTG officers never provided clear criteria for the semi-operational designations, instead citing female officers’ size and stature as the reasoning. By contrast, the suit alleges a male officer who had previously failed to fire in a deadly-force situation remained fully operational. DPD’s internal affairs division reportedly found that TTG had no set operating procedures at all, according to the filing.
“Are There Any Females in SWAT Right Now?”
The lawsuit includes a pointed allegation attributed to Smalley: “Are there any females in SWAT right now? Maybe there’s a reason for that.” Leftwich’s own supervisor, according to the filing, testified under oath that she was one of the strongest shooters in the unit — yet the suit alleges he also once showed a TTG officer a photo of Leftwich simply because he couldn’t otherwise recognize her…