Dallas police chief opposes ballot initiative decriminalizing pot possession under four ounces

Dallas voters will have the opportunity to vote on four citizen-driven ballot initiatives in November.

The Dallas City Council discussed all four on Wednesday and, as state law requires, will vote to place them on the ballot in one week.

Each initiative received the required 20,000 valid signatures from Dallas residents during a petition drive to appear on the ballot.

Dallas Chief of Police Eddie Garcia told the council he had concerns about two of the initiatives, including one that would decriminalize possession of marijuana under four ounces in the city.

"Two to four ounces of marijuana is definitely worth our time to investigate," Garcia told the City Council. "I do feel other cities might be different, but in ours, I do believe this will have negative public safety impacts.”

Garcia's comments came as the Dallas City Council reviewed the four citizen, signature-led charter amendments, which the council will vote on Aug. 14 and which will all appear on the general election ballot in November.

District 12 City Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn asked Garcia to address the council on potential impacts if voters approve the marijuana charter amendment on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5.

“You are doing such a great job at reducing violent crime in our city," Mendelsohn told Garcia. "And I’m very fearful that should this pass that it will have some kind of negative impact on that.”

Garcia also voiced concerns about another ballot initiative that would require Dallas police to increase the number of sworn officers to 4,000 in the next year.

Dallas HERO successfully submitted signatures for three ballot initiatives, including the one dealing with minimum Dallas police staffing.

Garcia told the council that the department has just below 3,100 officers but is encouraged by having as many as five graduating academies this year, which would add 250 officers.

“We’re on the right track," Garcia told NBC-5. "It’s going to take us a while to get there but we need to do it responsibly.”

Dallas HERO executive director Pete Marocco said the proposal does create a mandate, but one he says DPD could absorb.

“I think he’s right that we need to do it responsibly and that’s exactly what we propose," Marocco said Friday.

Dallas Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert told the council Wednesday it would require adding 900 officers which would impact the budget by $175 million, resulting in drastic cuts throughout several departments.

By contrast, Tolbert said plans to add 250 officers in 2025 and 2026 are part of the balanced budget draft expected to be released late Friday.

"Acclimating 900 police officers in one year is very difficult — I would say close to impossible — with all the administrative issues that it takes," Garcia said.

DPD currently has just under 3100 sworn officers.

Ground Game Texas, which helped in pot decriminalization efforts in Austin and Denton, told NBC 5 in June that Dallas is the largest city it has worked in to pass an amendment.

A spokesperson for the group said late Wednesday that they could not comment on Garcia's criticism because they had not had the opportunity to review it.

"However, we would like to reiterate that our marijuana decriminalization policy is sound, popular, and legal under Texas law," a spokesperson said.