Government of Dallas
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
in
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
is primarily vested in the
Dallas City Council The Dallas City Council serves as the legislative body in the City of Dallas. It consists of 14 members. City council members are chosen by Plurality voting, plurality elections in each of fourteen districts. The city operates under a Council-Mana ...
,
Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
, and City Manager. There is also the
Dallas Police Department The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas. Organization The department is headed by a chief of police who is appointed by the city manager who, in turn, is hir ...
, Dallas Fire-Rescue, and the Dallas municipal courts. In the 2006–2007 fiscal year, the city's total
budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...
was $2.3 billion.


Organization


City Council, Mayor and City Manager

The city uses a council-manager government with
Eric Johnson Eric Johnson may refer to: Music *Eric Johnson (guitarist) (born 1954) an American guitarist and recording artist * Eric D. Johnson (born 1976), member of multiple indie-rock bands including Fruit Bats, The Shins and Califone Politics * Eric Joh ...
serving as mayor, T.C. Broadnax serving as city manager, and 14 council members serving as representatives to the 14 council districts in the city.City of Dallas


. Retrieved 16 October 2006.
City of Dallas


. Retrieved 13 January 2007.
This organizational structure was recently contested by some in favor of a strong-mayor city charter only to be rejected by Dallas voters.


Police Department

Policing in Dallas is provided predominantly by the
Dallas Police Department The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas. Organization The department is headed by a chief of police who is appointed by the city manager who, in turn, is hir ...
, which has around 3,100 officers. The Dallas chief of police is Edgardo "Eddie" Garcia (effective February 3, 2021). The Police Headquarters are located in the Cedars neighborhood of
South Dallas South Dallas is an area in Dallas, Texas. It is south of Downtown Dallas, bordered by Trinity River on the west, Interstate 30 on the north, and the Great Trinity Forest to the south and east. In recent years the City of Dallas and organizations ...
.


Fire-Rescue

Fire protection and
emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...
in the city are provided by Dallas Fire-Rescue, which has 1,670 firefighters and 56 working fire stations in the city limits. The Dallas Fire & Rescue chief is Eddie Burns, Sr. The department also operates the Dallas Firefighter's Museum at Dallas's oldest remaining fire station, built in 1907, along Parry Avenue near
Fair Park Fair Park is a recreational and educational complex in Dallas, Texas, United States, located immediately east of downtown. The area is registered as a Dallas Landmark and National Historic Landmark; many of the buildings were constructed for th ...
. The city of Dallas is protected 24/7, 365 by the 1,670 paid, full-time firefighters of the city of Dallas Fire-Rescue Department (DFD), providing both fire protection and
emergency medical service Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...
to the city. Th
Dallas Fire-Rescue Department
operates out of 57 Fire Stations in 2 Divisions of 9 Battalions, located throughout the city, and maintain and operate a fire apparatus fleet of 57 Engines, 21 Trucks, 40 Rescues, 3 Peak Demand Rescues, 1 Haz-Mat. Unit, 2 Haz-Mat. Teams, 2 Urban Search and Rescue Units, 9 Brush/Booster Units, 1 Marine Unit (based on Lake Ray Hubbard), 7 smaller Fireboats, 1 Swift Water Rescue Unit, and numerous other special, support, and reserve units. All DFD Paramedics are Firefighters, but not all Firefighters are Paramedics; but are trained to at least EMT-Basic. EMT-Paramedics and EMT-B's are trained through the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 18,800 employees, more than 2,900 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient vi ...
. The department also operates the Dallas Firefighter's Museum at Dallas' oldest remaining fire station, built in 1907, along Parry Avenue near
Fair Park Fair Park is a recreational and educational complex in Dallas, Texas, United States, located immediately east of downtown. The area is registered as a Dallas Landmark and National Historic Landmark; many of the buildings were constructed for th ...
. In addition, the department operates in mutual aid agreements with several surrounding municipalities. In 1995, the Dallas Fire Department Training Academy (now the Chief Dodd Miller Training Academy) began to host firefighter recruits from other Metroplex municipalities in its 22-week basic firefighter training school, effectively becoming a regional training center. The Academy is reverently known as "The Drill Tower" by instructors and graduates, referring to the facility's most taxing structure/activity, a six story tower whose staircase is routinely climbed three times in rapid succession by recruits in full gear and high-rise hose packs. * Battalion 1 is located at Fire Station #4; Battalion 2 is located at Fire Station #7; Battalion 3 is located at Fire Station #8; Battalion 4 is located at Fire Station #28; Battalion 5 is located at Fire Station #25; Battalion 6 is located at Fire Station #14; Battalion 7 is located at Fire Station #35; Battalion 8 is located at Fire Station #34, Battalion 9 is located at Fire Station #47; Battalion 10 is out of service as of Oct. 22, 2012. Division Chief 806 is located at Fire Station #55, while Division Chief 807 is located at Fire Station #1. The Swift Water Rescue Unit is located at Fire Station #34 and the Urban Search and Rescue Units are located at Fire Stations 33 and 19.


Courts

The City of Dallas maintains its ow
municipal courts
for trying Class C misdemeanors including violations o

and certain civil matters.


Budget

In the 2006–2007 fiscal year, the city's total
budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...
(the sum of operating and capital budgets) was
US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
2,344,314,114.City of Dallas FY06-07 Adopted Budget Overview
(
PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
). Retrieved 17 October 2006.
The city has seen a steady increase in its budget throughout its history due to sustained growth: the budget was $1,717,449,783 in 2002–2003, $1,912,845,956 in 2003–2004, $2,049,685,734 in 2004–2005City of Dallas FY05-06 Adopted Budget Overview
. (
PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
). Retrieved 9 May 2006.
and $2,218,345,070 in 2005–2006.


Crime

From 1998 until 2005 (the most recent year with available statistics), the city of Dallas has had the highest overall
crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
rate for the nine United States cities with over 1 million people. Violent crime in Dallas was also ranked #1 during the same time period.
Murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
s peaked at 500 in 1991. It then fluctuated from 227 in 2000 to 240 in 2001, 196 in 2002, 223 in 2003, 275 in 2004, and finally 198 in 2005, marking a sharp decline over the two previous years. However, Dallas was again ranked in 2005 as the most dangerous city out of the ten largest cities in the United States.


Other governments


Dallas County


Texas

State trial courts sitting in the City of Dallas or in adjacent portions of Dallas County with jurisdiction of matters arising in the City includ
civil district courts
,
family district courts

juvenile district courtscounty courts at lawcounty criminal courts
an
probate courts
. The
Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...
(TDCJ) operates the Parole Division Region II headquarters in Dallas. The Dallas I and Dallas III district parole offices are in the same complex as the headquarters, while the Dallas IV district parole office, the Dallas IV satellite, and the Dallas V district parole office are in different locations in Dallas. The Dallas II district parole office is in
Garland A garland is a decorative braid, knot or wreath of flowers, leaves, or other material. Garlands can be worn on the head or around the neck, hung on an inanimate object, or laid in a place of cultural or religious importance. Etymology From the ...
.


United States

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which exercises original jurisdiction over 100 counties in North and West Texas, convenes in the
Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse The Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse, named for former Dallas mayor Earle Cabell, is located in the Government District of downtown Dallas, Texas, United States. It houses the United States District Court for the Northern District ...
in the Government District of
downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
. The same building additionally houses United States Bankruptcy and Magistrate Courts and a
United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...
office. Dallas also is the seat of the
Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas The Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas is one of the 14 Texas Courts of Appeals. It currently sits in Dallas, Texas. It has simultaneously both the smallest Court of Appeals' jurisdictional geographic size (only six counties, one of which is shared ...
. The
United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...
operates several post offices in Dallas. The main Dallas Post Office is at 401 Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike ( Interstate 30, also known as the Tom Landry Freeway). The
Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...
has its South Central Regional Office in Dallas.About South Central Regional Office
."
Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...
. Retrieved on May 30, 2010.


See also

* Sister cities of Dallas, Texas


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Law And Government Of Dallas