Upon suggesting that protesters join the police force if they want to see real change in their neighborhood, David Brown, the Police Chief of Dallas, has seen the number of applications for his department nearly quadruple.
During the period a month earlier, from June 8 through June 20, the Dallas Police Department only received about 11 applications a day. This had been an issue of concern, largely because the department’s turnover rate in 2015 of 6.8 percent, or 240 officers, was the highest it had been since the 1980s.
Due to a lack of recruits, the department had been forced to close academy training sessions, which was only compounded by accusations that the department had “low pay, bad management, and a lack of boots on the ground.”
One effort that the Dallas Police Department made in recent months was to hire 200 more officers in 2016, in the hope that this would offset any losses of officers.
Many officers had left the department after finding better paying officer positions in other cities in Northern Texas.
After the shooting, Brown gained the support of many nationwide by calling out protesters to “get involved and do something about it, by becoming part of the solution.”
He also said that the police are asked to do too much in the United States— “every societal failure, we put it on the cops to resolve.”
While it is unclear whether protesters ended up applying to the Dallas Police Department, clearly Brown’s words have inspired many to apply.
