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The Dallas Police Association says officers who worked Saturday night's protests were misled.
The DPA says officers believed they would get overtime pay but were later told to take an extra day off instead.
It was not until after 4 p.m. that a Dallas Police Department spokesperson acknowledged the officers received conflicting information. The department said it will pay overtime to officers who earned it.
Regardless, the association says this should not be happening at a time Dallas police is trying to keep officers from leaving its ranks.
As Dallas police guarded monuments and withstood anti-police chants, quite a few were working overtime.
The clashes rarely got out of hand, and DPA President Mike Mata says the credit goes to officers on the front line.
“They performed amazingly,” he said. “They represented in the utmost level of professionalism. They do their duty. They do their job.”
But the Sunday morning, Mata says the officers woke up to an email from police leadership revealing a miscommunication, telling them they should expect to take a day off instead of receiving overtime pay.
“It's legal, but it's not right,” Mata said. “You give somebody your word. You tell them you're going to do something. You pay them.”
Dallas police are dealing with a manpower shortage. Officers on overtime have been helping answer calls. And now, there is social media chatter about another protest against white supremacy on Friday.
“The next protest — when the officers don't volunteer to work it, where are you going to get the officers to work that protest?” Mata said.
While Mata says officers will still show up when duty calls, he worries it's another hit to morale that could hurt the force.
“Why are we losing officers? Because of things like this,” he said. “That's why they are going to other cities.”
There were several other law enforcement agencies out there helping at the rally. Mata says all those agencies immediately gave their officers the option of taking overtime pay.