Dallas police Chief Eddie García once said he’d “run through a wall” for former City Manager T.C. Broadnax, but it appears he will only have to drive down Interstate 35. According to a memo from Broadnax, García will retire from the Dallas Police Department to become an assistant city manager under his former boss, where he will oversee the city’s first responders.
According to that memo, his first day will be November 4.
Broadnax, who left Dallas for the same job in Austin earlier this year under a cloud of acrimony, had reportedly been eyeing García for the open police chief position there. It prompted interim City Manager Kim Tolbert to tell Houston and Austin to “turn around and go back home.”
And even though the city charter doesn’t allow the Council to strike a contract with the police chief, Tolbert seemed to wrangle a deal: in exchange for García’s committing to the city through May 2027, he would get a twice-annual $10,000 retention bonus beginning November 2024, as well as assurances that he would receive a year’s salary if fired “for convenience” during those three years. He will not get those bonuses or severance.
“This was complicated, but we got it done,” Tolbert said in a statement announcing the agreement. “If this was NFL Football, we were able to keep Chief García on the Dallas Team; he’s the right quarterback to lead our police department. We certainly didn’t want to lose him to free agency.”
García seemed adamant about staying put. “This is the right place to complete my service, and I know your police officers are honored to serve Dallas residents,” he said. “We will keep doing our jobs with excellence and results.” On May 16, he tweeted “Home = @DallasPD.”
This is the risk when a city manager bails. There is always a possibility that he’ll take his preferred employees with him. Deputy City Manager Jon Fortune was among the first to choose Austin, costing Dallas a highly respected administrator with a deep knowledge of public safety. Now it’s García, who teamed with criminologists to translate granular data into a plan that has successfully reduced violent crime in the city of Dallas each of the last four years. It’s been widely cited that Mayor Eric Johnson’s icy relationship with Broadnax forced his resignation, that their time together had grown so sour that little could be accomplished from 1500 Marilla. Now García has chosen his old boss over the city he once pledged to serve for at least five years. He made it three and a half.
His work had his bosses fawning over him, swatting away Houston and Austin as those cities searched for a police chief. But the “agreement” he signed with interim City Manager Kim Tolbert contained soft language—it was a “plan” and a “commitment”—that promised him an annual salary of more than $300,000, making him one of the highest paid top cops in Texas, but didn’t anchor him here. The city charter designates police chiefs as “at-will” employees, meaning they can be fired at any time and they can walk at any time.
The agreement between Dallas and the chief also states that García will assist the city in selecting its next police chief, as well as with the transition. His replacement will inherit a crime plan that will likely continue, with data dictating where to apply officer resources to reduce violence. But that person will also face a wave of challenges that will likely impact the department: complicated charter amendments that could hamstring city spending, discussions around appropriate police oversight, a lengthy and protracted process to create a plan to bring the city’s public safety pension into solvency. Too, a recent shooting left one of his officers dead and two more injured.
The department hasn’t been able to add officers despite having the funding to do so; there are about 3,100 in the department, which is 400 or so below the roster a decade ago. That’s a national problem and Dallas was not immune.
Sources at City Hall said that many—including the City Council—were blindsided by the news this afternoon. When reached for comment shortly after the story broke, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua said he was “just hearing” it. Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn, who chairs the city’s Public Safety Committee, did not respond to requests for comment.
Dallas Morning News reporter Kelli Smith obtained the email the chief sent to rank and file, which you can read here. Tolbert and Johnson sent the below statement to media:
Chief Garcia was the right leader at the right time for the Dallas Police Department.
We shared a vision for a safer Dallas that relied on proven strategies and a relentless approach to fighting crime, and we worked together to prioritize public safety at City Hall and turn the tide against violence in Dallas neighborhoods.
The results of this partnership have been remarkable. Our city has achieved three consecutive years of violent crime reduction that bucked national trends. We have built greater trust between our communities and our police department. We have improved morale among our hardworking men and women in blue, and we acknowledge that the strength of the Dallas Police Department lies not in one individual, but in the collective efforts of the many courageous men and women who serve our city every day.
We are immensely grateful to Chief Garcia for his dedicated service and unwavering commitment to the safety of our residents. While we are sorry to see him go, we also know that big city police chiefs never stick around forever. We are fortunate to have had a capable, committed, experienced, and innovative police chief these last three and a half years. We wish him the best of luck on his next journey.
Now, our shared mission is clear: We must work together with the Dallas City Council, city staff, and our public safety personnel to build upon our incredible successes. And we must begin a search for a new chief who can help us achieve our goal of making Dallas the safest major city in America.
Authors
Bethany Erickson
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