The immediate problem is visibility: Dallas cannot yet show residents one complete, current record of why overtime happened, who approved it, whether staffing would cost less, and whether older audit fixes are working.
Police & public safety
How long residents wait—and what it costs
Response times are shown as actual minutes, not percentages alone. Call priorities, overtime, staffing, and limitations are explained in plain language.
Overtime, leave and operations
Where the workforce money can leak
We flag weak controls and unexplained costs. We do not call lawful leave—or an allegation—abuse without evidence.
Police overtimeFORECAST OVER
$47.05M → $49.80M+$2.75M above budget. Projected hours are down 9.2% from the 2025 budget year, but the average hourly cost rose 5.2%.
42% of projected hours: minimum staffing and late relief.Fire-Rescue overtimeFORECAST OVER
$20.36M → $25.63M+$5.26M above budget, as Dallas reports it. Projected hours are down 33% from the 2025 budget year.
43.5% of projected hours are scheduled overtime built into firefighters' legally required work cycles.Combined result: Dallas expects about $8.01M more overtime than it budgeted. This difference is not proof of waste. Dallas also needs to explain why two Police reimbursement totals do not match.
Daily report · partial month
October 1–28, 2026 · Citywide averagesPolice response times: October so far
- Priority 1Emergency
- 8m 26s
- Priority 2Prompt
- 1h 11m 30s
- Priority 3General service
- 1h 46m 41s
- Priority 4Non-critical
- 2h 6m 14s
Immediate danger to life or a serious property threat.
Examples: Shooting, stabbing, active shooter, or kidnapping in progress.Urgent, but not an immediate life threat.
Examples: Certain disturbances, alarms, road rage, or suspicious people.Police service is needed, but there is no urgent threat or injury.
Examples: A property crime that already happened, missing person, or drug house.A non-emergency or past event.
Examples: Loud music, theft found later, an animal complaint, or criminal mischief.h = hours · m = minutes · s = seconds. Rounded to the nearest second. These partial-month averages are not a guaranteed wait. They are separate from the April history and budget-year figures below.
Long view · same month each year
Dallas Police response time since 2021
April 2026 is better than April 2025. But Priority 1 is still 18% slower than April 2021, and Priority 2 is 127% slower.
Priority 1 · Emergency8m 50sApril 2026
Highest: 11m 02s in 2025. Vs. 2021: +18%.
Priority 2 · Prompt1h 04mApril 2026
Highest: 1h 51m in 2023. Vs. 2021: +127%.
Priority 3 · General service1h 50mApril 2026
Highest: 12h 35m in 2023. Vs. 2021: -6%.
Priority 4 · Non-critical2h 00mApril 2026
Highest: 12h 07m in 2023. Vs. 2021: -24%.
What the percentage alone hides
Priority 3 reached about 12h 35m in April 2023; Priority 4 reached about 12h 07m. Both are now near two hours. The improvement is real, but “down” does not automatically mean “good.”
See every exact April value
| Year | Priority 1 | Priority 2 | Priority 3 | Priority 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7m 31s | 28m 38s | 1h 57m | 2h 39m |
| 2022 | 9m 49s | 52m 13s | 4h 18m | 5h 26m |
| 2023 | 10m 19s | 1h 51m | 12h 35m | 12h 07m |
| 2024 | 10m 34s | 1h 21m | 3h 48m | 4h 22m |
| 2025 | 11m 02s | 1h 28m | 4h 25m | 4h 56m |
| 2026 | 8m 50s | 1h 04m | 1h 50m | 2h 00m |
Latest briefing view
Time so far in the 2026 budget year compared with the 2025 budget year2026 budget-year response times
Priority 111m 07s8m 37s2m 30s fasterDallas prints 29%; these values calculate to 22.5%.
Priority 21h 34m1h 06m28m 20s faster
Priority 34h 27m1h 50m2h 37m faster
Priority 44h 55m2h 06m2h 48m faster
CONTROL GAPPolice overtime recordsOpen
The audit found no unusual use showing waste or abuse. It did find missing support and heavy reliance on manual records.
- 149 of 412 tested entries lacked supporting justification.
- 268 of 412 used manual overtime cards.
- The Dallas Police Department accepted the risk of not setting a completion date for one central electronic record.
What closes this
Official record ↗Publish the current paper-versus-electronic share, approval exceptions, duplicate-hour checks, and the final status of the 2022 recommendation.
VERIFY THE UNITFire payroll and leaveOpen
Fire uses TeleStaff with several approval levels. The new briefing's leave figure is not clear enough to judge behavior.
- The deck says 42.9 unscheduled-leave hours per employee per month, but its footer describes average daily hours.
- A 2024 audit found all 60 sampled paid and time-off entries supported by station records.
- The audit also found undocumented adjustments and about $51,000 of incentive-pay support that was not easy to locate.
What closes this
Official record ↗Correct the denominator, separate lawful leave types, and publish aggregate staffing effects—never employee medical details.
FIX DUE SEP. 30Small pay errors go both waysOpen
A 2026 sample found two small overpayments and one underpayment. That points to data-entry controls, not proven employee misconduct.
- Two education-pay exceptions: about $144 and $288 per year.
- One patrol-assignment underpayment: about $300 per year.
- The Dallas Police Department says a digital comparison and revised process are due September 30, 2026.
What closes this
Official record ↗Show the completed comparison, total corrections, owner, and March 2027 follow-up result.
METRICS OUTSTANDINGJail payment needs a scorecardOpen
Dallas can pay Dallas County up to $8.71M for jail services during the City’s 2026 budget year. A City memo says intake fell while salary and operating costs grew.
- Current term: October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026.
- The April memo says performance measures, cost true-ups, data, and a regular meeting schedule were still outstanding.
- This Dallas County agreement is separate from the citywide Allied Universal guard contract.
What closes this
Official record ↗Publish bookings, jail days, invoice components, staffing and overtime share, true-ups, service targets, and meeting results.
Who handles the technology?Information and Technology Services
Its Business Application Management team handles City software and department requirements. Dallas Police, Dallas Fire-Rescue, Human Resources, the Controller, Procurement, and the City Auditor still own their parts of the process.
Independent blueprintAudit the data, not rumors
Compare approvals, schedules, second jobs, calls, staffing, overtime paid in cash versus time off, corrections, and results. Los Angeles and San José publish useful city-audit models.
Dallas technology office ↗2026 budget-year jail agreement ↗Los Angeles overtime model ↗San José audit method ↗Report evidence to the City Auditor ↗
Privacy line: publish totals and unusual records that need review by department, work group, reason, and pay period. Do not publish medical diagnoses, protected leave details, or unproven allegations. Contract maximums and spending estimates are not payments.