On the road

On the road

Saturday, September 14, 2013

October 2014 Dallas Police Shield magazine


 

Like the year 1988, probably the worst in DPD history as far as deaths of DPD officers, 1971 and 1972 may be arguably runners up in the worst years in the history of the Dallas Police Department.

 On May 3, 1972 the Dallas Morning News had an article pointing out the DPD’s rank and files bitterness and frustration over the recent and seemingly endless slayings and assaults on DPD officers. Officer Carl J. Cooke was the third rookie shot to death in the line of duty since the fall of 1971.

This writer remembers sitting in my 1965 Mustang at the intersection of Bruton and Buckner about this time. I was a stupid 10th grader at W.W.Samuell H.S. but I was apparently somewhat aware of the killings. A Dallas squad car pulled up next to me and a buddy. I commented that the new standup shotgun rack (that didn’t last very long with DPD) in the squad car was a result of these killings and that the DPD wanted potential bad guys to know that officers had such a weapon readily available. Maybe I was right.

The deaths of Cooke (“a monument to the 1-man squad,” according to one officer), and Officers Allen Camp and Johnnie Hartwell had raised questions about the departments policies on training and the use of firearms.

There was angry talk among the nervous and frustrated ranks that indicated police may be prepared to shoot first and ask questions later. Some said that the 1-man squad car was the reason for the violence, others said that it was the accelerated training that DPD officers were subjected to. The DMN wrote that At one time rookies were assigned a trainer for six months after completing the academy. Then the rookie might work with a veteran officer for three years or more. Now, the article said, the rookie worked only three months with a trainer, then put out on the streets, often in 1-man squads.

Some officers were critical of the department which in June, 1970 handed down a departmental “policy statement” that police would stop shooting “suspected” criminals. This was a result of a DPD detective assigned to the Metro Squad. He had shot a known police character who reached under the seat of his truck and grabbed a wrench after being confronted by police. The officer thought it was a gun and shot the guy. The grand jury investigated along with the DPD and suspended the officer for 30 days and removed him as a detective in the Metro Squad.

After Cooke’s death, the DPD issued a statement that “the department never tried to restrict any officer in firing when they were in fear of their lives.”

One anonymous but described as a veteran officer told the DMN that “I would rather be sitting in front of that grand jury telling those 12 ‘tried and true’ people how and why I killed a burglar than to have the burglar there telling them how he killed me.”

  The next day May 4, 1972 the DMN reported that DPD Chief Frank Dyson, who had three weeks earlier said he would seek legislation in Austin to curb an outbreak of violence against police officers, went one step further by creating a task force to spot any training and operational weaknesses that also might be a factor.

Dyson said that while the study is in progress, directives were being issued to commanders clarifying departmental use on firearms. “It is not a shoot first and ask questions later policy,” said Dyson, “but rather a clarification of the policy that men are not are not to subject themselves to unnecessary risk.”

Dyson also said that he was passing the word to district commanders that police answering burglar-in-the- building and robbery calls are “to hit the ground carrying a shotgun.” He also stated that the task force would be staffed exclusively by police officers assigned to “stress duty,” who would be in the best position to identify problems. A patrolman would be assigned to head up the group.

On May 7, 1972 it was reported that police shot and wounded a burglar at the Amco Cycle Shop, 5347 Forest Lane about 3:35 am after the burglar alarm went off. Officer J.L. Elliot and R.A. Husson answered the call and Husson spotted the suspect running through a fenced storage area and yelled for him to stop. When he started climbing the fence Elliot fired a shotgun blast, hitting the suspect in the hand and face. The suspect however was not seriously injured and later went to Parkland Hospital. Police found keys to six motorcycles on the lot in the suspect’s pockets. It’s not known whether the 19 year old Irving resident continued a life of crime after this incident, but I would think possibly not.   

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