DALLAS — The cities of Houston and Austin are showing interest in potentially hiring Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia for the same role, sources tell WFAA.
To keep Garcia, the City of Dallas may have to offer the police chief a contract, sources say. However, the Dallas city charter does not allow for police chiefs to be under contract -- and no chiefs prior to Garcia have been under contract in recent history.
Garcia, who was hired as chief in Dallas in 2021, is currently employed in an at-will capacity under the city manager, meaning he can leave the role at any time.
Houston's interest in Garcia becoming its police chief comes as city officials on Wednesday accepted Chief Troy Finner's retirement.
Finner's departure leaves an opening for a department that employs around 5,300 officers and more than 1,000 civilian staffers. The Dallas Police Department, by comparison, has around 3,200 officers and around 600 civilian staffers.
Houston city officials have not yet named any potential replacements to Finner, and Garcia is not commenting on any potential link to him and the opening in Houston.
When reached for comment, the Houston mayor's office offered the following statement.
"Mayor [John] Whitmire wants to improve at HPD, get the department out of the media headlines and return to a focus on public safety. He is confident Acting Chief [Larry] Satterwhite will be a strong leader and it is too soon to discuss the next steps in finding a new police chief."
Austin's interest in Garcia stems from the fact that its chief role has also been open since its previous chief, Joseph Chacon, retired in August, and because former Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax, who hired Garcia, is now Austin's city manager as of this week.
The Austin Police Department said it was continuing to operate under the watch of its interim Police Chief Robin Henderson, and that no information on the process for hiring a permanent chief was yet available.
In response to WFAA's reporting on other Texas cities' interest in Garcia for their open chief positions, Interim Dallas City Manager Kim Tolbert issued the following statement:
"It’s no surprise that other Texas cities are expressing interest in Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia. He has been the key leader who has delivered a lower crime rate to Dallas, and he has helped increase police morale while boosting residents’ confidence in the direction of the department.
Obviously, City Council members and I want to keep him in Dallas doing a good job. It will take flexibility, creativity with a hefty dose of accountability to accomplish that, but we are working tirelessly to develop solutions. I believe Chief Garcia wants to remain here.
To the cities shopping in Dallas for a new chief, I have one message for you: ‘turn around and go back home.’ In the meantime, I will keep the City Council and the public informed about the progress on these issues."
Jaime Castro, the president of the Dallas Police Association, released the following statement about the future of Garcia:
“Every professional Dallas police officer can attest that Eddie Garcia is the best police chief in the country due to his high level of competence and integrity and his commitment to protecting every family in every part of our community. With his stellar record of success in turning around a police department that desperately needed strong, forward-thinking leadership, Chief Garcia will most certainly be a target of countless cities across Texas looking to improve public safety with a new Chief, especially Houston. We expect every City Councilmember who promised to protect their constituents from violent crime will take all steps necessary, without the excuse of bureaucratic slowdowns, to ensure we keep Eddie Garcia as our police chief and maintain the positive momentum we currently have in reducing crime in Dallas. The committed men and women of the Dallas Police Association wholeheartedly support maintaining Chief Eddie Garcia as the leader of the Dallas Police Department.”
Garcia was named the new chief of the Dallas Police Department at the end of 2020 and sworn in on Feb. 3, 2021. He was hired following a tumultuous year of protests following the killing of George Floyd during an arrest being made by Minneapolis police officers that led to the resignation of former Dallas Police Chief U. Reneé Hall. Garcia was also the first Hispanic police chief to lead DPD.
The city of Dallas hired Garcia to reduce violent crime, restore community trust and boost the department's morale. Violent crime in the city has been down for three years in a row, and is currently at the lowest it has been in six years.
Prior to his arrival to Dallas, Garcia served as chief of the San Jose Police Department from 2016 to 2020. He began his policing career with that department in 1992.
Under Garcia, DPD launched a violent crime reduction plan, aimed at reducing crime in the most violent areas of the city after three years of growth. This strategy involved policing hot spots -- placing police in areas where violent crime is likely to occur, as well as disrupting criminal networks by sending officers to arrest habitual criminals and focusing on deterrence and urban blight abatement by working with communities.
DPD also created the crime analytics dashboard under Garcia, which allows the public to see crime-related data and response times around Dallas, as well as where crime is happening. Data was also made available for cases of officers using force in public, giving information on victims, officers, the outcomes of investigations and the force used.
Less than six months into his tenure, Garcia apologized to the mother of Santos Rodriguez 48 years after his death. Rodriguez, 12, was murdered by a Dallas police officer in 1973.
"I will not allow our department to forget. In order to improve, we must learn from the dark moments of our past," Garcia said at the time.
Garcia was also the first Dallas police chief to be named President of the Major City Chief's Association, which is made up of executives from the largest cities across the U.S. and Canada.
Last year, Garcia helped work with state legislators to pass a law making it a felony to cut off an ankle monitor after two people were killed at a hospital by a suspect on parole who had cut off his ankle monitor twice.
Although Garcia has worked to increase officer staffing, DPD is still about 800 officers short. The department has also struggled to improve response times. To help with this, Garcia made it so that some non-emergency complaints must be reported online.