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Dallas PD creates group for specialized unit training
The Dallas Police Department is in the middle of a new training for all officers who work in specialized units.
DALLAS - The Dallas Police Department is in the middle of a new training for all officers who work in specialized units.
The beating death of Tyre Nichols by a specialized police unit in Memphis caused some police departments to dismantle specialized units working in high crime areas.
"The question isn't whether or not we need them here in the city of Dallas. We absolutely need them. The question is can we make them better?" Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said.
Garcia said the answer is not backing down specialized crime units, but building them up with better tactics through better training.
Dallas PD is creating what’s called the Tactical Training Group.
"We needed to have some comprehensive training without units to have some continuity in the manner in which they train," Garcia explained.
The trainers are the most seasoned officers, and they’re teaching the same best practices to specialized units, including SWAT, fugitive, the gang unit, narcotics, special patrol units, and the community response team, which made news very recently for a shootout Tuesday near Dallas Love Field with the driver of a stolen U-Haul.
Dallas police officer shoots suspect who rammed stolen U-Haul into police vehicle
A Dallas police officer shot a man who led police on a brief chase in a stolen U-Haul.
A unified approach to every potential dangerous encounter.
"So when they go out into real life, real world situations, they are more cohesive," said Dallas PD Sgt. Matt Banes, with the Dallas Police Tactical Training Group. "Everybody's on the same set of tactics, same playing field, and we're not working off of each other trying to guess what each other's doing."
They did work in an un-air-conditioned warehouse that has built out rooms to resemble living areas.
This week was search and arrest warrant training.
Better training in hopes of pushing in on increasing violence.
"This is our reaction, this is our game plan, this is how we're going to combat that," Sgt. Banes said. "We're getting our officers trained probably better than any other police department that I know of."
Chief Garcia said DPD's Tactical Training Group is the first in the nation, and it includes more than the training component.
"Really look at our specialized units, you know. What’s the best selection process for officers in specialized units? What's the best selection process for supervisors in specialized units?" Garcia said. "They'll be the professional specialized units that we need to be surgical about when they go into certain neighborhoods to rid that area of violent crime."
Garcia hopes what starts here can spread to other departments so that specialized units, even those that operate in a vacuum, can do so safely trained the same way across the board.