November 2013 Dallas Police Shield

 

We saw last month how in 1972, the DPD was reeling from a series of shootings where there were recently three Dallas Police Officers killed and two wounded. It was an epidemic nationwide where lawlessness on many levels seemed to be tearing America apart.

In June 1972 a delegation of North Texas representatives went to Austin to meet with Texas Governor Preston Smith. Among those making the journey to the capital were Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Ted Holland, City Mgr. Scott McDonald, City Att. Alex Bickley and Police Chief Frank Dyson. Several other cities were also represented including the mayors of University Park, Denton, Garland, Mesquite and Councilman Bill Bowles of Arlington.

Chief Dyson said the delegation will urge Smith to add to the agenda of the special session bills increasing the punishments for defendants convicted on assaults on police officers. The group also asked Smith to include a bill authorizing the use of wiretaps to obtain evidence on organized crime figures and a bill making oral confessions admissible evidence in trails.

Another high-priority item would authorize properly trained fire department ambulance attendants to render medical treatment beyond first-aid.

In the meantime there was a group of Dallas police wives who charged that Governor Preston Smith and the Dallas police administration had been un-sympathetic to their attempts to make their husbands jobs safer and to get stronger laws dealing with assaults on police. About 40 women meeting at the DPA club said they have not received the kind of answers they believe will strengthen their attempts. Another of the group’s goals was to ask the department for all cars to have 2 man squads instead of 1 man and better training for rookies.      

On June 8, 1972 the DMN reported that Asst. Police Chief Don Steele had written to Police Chief Frank Dyson recommending that police officers replace civilian dispatchers in the DPD. The department had replaced officers with civilians in November, 1970 to free up officers for the streets. Steele said in an interview that he was not seeking to abolish the civilian dispatch program altogether. “We do not intend to take away their jobs or transfer them,” said Steele.

Steele said that the drop-out rate in civilian dispatchers was abnormally high. Of the 85 civilians hired in November, 1970, 52 had dropped out because of the pressures of the job. In addition, some of the drop-outs, due to the training received by the department, qualified them for employment as police officers in smaller departments, said Steele. While he declined to say that the program was a failure, Steele said that “until we get a better evaluation on the kind of mix (civilian and police dispatchers) selection, we possibly need a better selection process because many left because they could not handle to pressure and work load of being a dispatcher.

Steele also said that he acknowledges that there is some validity to the complaints by field officers that civilian dispatchers lack the expertise to handle the job. He also said that there had been a number of instances where the civilians had been complimented.

A six member task force assigned by Chief Dyson in May to explore possible internal weaknesses that might be contributing to the recent wave of assaults on Dallas police is reported to be looking into the two year old experiment in using civilian dispatchers.

On June 18, 1972 there was a story where Lt. George Butler was retiring. He had been with the department for 36 years and had held almost every job in the police department. It was said that he had    pursued racketeers, espionage agents and criminals. He also rubbed elbows with politicians, millionaires and the average man. In his 36^th year with the DPD, Butler still had lunch occasionally with billionaire H.L. Hunt.

Butler joined the DPD in 1936. During WWII, Butler worked with various government agencies combating sabotage, espionage, un-American activities, internal security and other matters of subversion.

He had been honored by the city of New Orleans for his work in combating organized crime and had received an award from the N.Y.P.D. for his nationwide work on pornography. Many of the people Butler knew were gangsters including Herbert Noble, Benny Binnion, and Paul Jones that were well known to the veteran officer.