Dallas residents meet police chief contenders before city manager's final selection
North Texans got a rare glimpse into the minds of the five contenders for the job of Dallas' new police chief Tuesday. This special meet-and-greet event comes days before the city manager makes her final selection.
"I just want to ask him what he planned to do a little different on what he planned to bring to the table," said Dallas resident Shaure Robertson.
"I asked her a question: What would she do if she were chief in order to build community and build a relationship between the community," said another Dallas citizen.
The five candidates for the Dallas Police Chief are:
The top topics addressed by residents were recruitment, retention, and violent crime.
Each of the candidates also addressed Proposition U, a
charter amendment Dallas voters approved last November
, which requires the city to maintain a police force of at minimum 4,000 officers.
Ultimately, the finalists made a point to answer the key question: "Why are they the best ones for the job."
"As a career public servant, my job is not to get a job. My job is to serve," Boetig said.
"I've touched every type of policing, and I've seen good policing and bad policing throughout. I can bring all that together," Comeaux said.
"I have a deep understanding of this department. I know its strength, its weaknesses," said Igo.
"I love that question," said Shead. "Everything that I learned, the foundation of who I am, came from the things that I got in Dallas."
"I was a Dallas police officer for 23.5 years. There are some challenges, but I look at them as opportunities," said Arredondo.
As for the rest of this process, the five candidates will have meetings with City Manager Kimberly Tolbert Wednesday. Tolbert then plans to make her final decision by next week.
Watch Carrollton Police Chief Roberto Arredondo Jr's full, unedited interview below:
Watch former FBI assistant director Brian Boetig's full, unedited interview below:
Watch Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency's Houston Field Division Daniel Comeaux's full unedited interview below:
Watch Interim Dallas Police Chief Michael Igo's full, unedited interview below:
Watch Dallas Assistant Chief Catrina Shead's full, unedited interview below:
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Some former officials are concerned the stepped-up focus on violent crime and immigration — areas already core to the mission of agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — risks deflecting attention from some of the complicated criminal and national security threats for which the bureau has long borne primary if not exclusive responsibility for investigating. 'If you're looking down five feet in front of you, looking for gang members and I would say lower-level criminals, you're going to miss some of the more sophisticated strategic issues that may be already present or emerging,' said Chris Piehota, who retired from the FBI in 2020 as an executive assistant director. Enforcement of immigration laws has long been the principal jurisdiction of immigration agents tasked with arresting people in the U.S. illegally along with border agents who police points of entry. 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Fighting violent crime was near the bottom, above only supporting law enforcement partners and technology upgrades. The FBI's new list of priorities places 'Crush Violent Crime' as a top pillar alongside 'Defend the Homeland," though FBI leaders have also sought to stress that counterterrorism remains the bureau's principal mandate. Wray often said he was hard-pressed to think of a time when the FBI was facing so many elevated threats at once. At the time of his departure last January, the FBI was grappling with elevated terrorism concerns; Iranian assassination plots on U.S. soil; Chinese spying and hacking of Americans' cell phones; ransomware attacks against hospitals; and Russian influence operations aimed at sowing disinformation. Testifying before lawmakers last month, Patel took care to note the surge in terrorism threats following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and a Chinese espionage threat he said had yielded investigations in each of the bureau's offices. But the accomplishments he dwelled on first concerned efforts to 'take dangerous criminals off our streets,' including the arrests of three suspects on the 'Ten Most Wanted' list, and large drug seizures. Rounding out the priority list are two newcomers: 'Rebuild Public Trust' and 'Fierce Organizational Accountability.' Those reflect claims amplified by Patel and Bongino that the bureau had become politicized through its years of investigations of Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago home was searched by agents for classified documents in 2022. Close allies of Trump, both men have committed to disclose files from past investigations, including into Russian election interference and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, that have fueled grievances against the bureau. They've also pledged to examine matters that have captivated attention in conservative circles, like the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade. Employees have spent hours poring over documents from the sex trafficking case against financier Jeffrey Epstein, a favorite subject of conspiracy theorists, to prepare them for release. Patel had forecast his interest in rejiggering priorities long before becoming director, including by saying that if he ran the bureau, he would 'let good cops be good cops' and push agents into the field. A critic as a House Republican staffer of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation, which he calls an example of politicized law enforcement, he had said that he would support breaking off the FBI's 'intel shops' to focus on crime-fighting. James Gagliano, a retired FBI supervisor, said he would like to see more specific information about the new priorities but was heartened by an enhanced violent crime focus so long as other initiatives weren't abandoned. 'Mission priorities change,' Gagliano said. 'The threat matrix changes. You've got to constantly get out in front of that.' 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