Dallas residents say crime is the city's No. 1 problem. And what has City Hall done in recent years? Reduced the number of officers per resident, ignored the city's worst-in-the-nation crime rate and gave the police chief a glowing review one year, then fired him the next.

By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News

CAUTION: ROUGH ROAD AHEAD The next police chief in Dallas faces a series of daunting challenges -- and that's even before the job of crime-fighting is put on the table. Money The city pinched the police with its handling of a $1.2 million federal grant nearly six years ago. The money was earmarked for buying extra patrol cars. Instead, the city bought its usual allotment and put the money in the general fund. Uncle Sam made the city pay back the grant. Litigation from the 2001 fake-drug scandal could cost the city millions. People A Dallas Morning News investigation found that the department has hired a number of officers with questionable backgrounds, including some with legal troubles or repeated difficulties in completing training. Prosecutors asked to examine the personnel files of all 3,000 Dallas officers "for adverse personal actions that involved any crimes of moral turpitude." The Dallas County district attorney's office recently released a list of 26 officers who have incidents in their backgrounds that might compromise their ability to testify in criminal trials. Racial divisions The department's racial history is long and strained. It made a contentious transformation from a mostly white department in the 1970s and 1980s and faced allegations of police brutality in the late '80s. In recent years, the department took a big credibility hit with prosecutors and the public over the arrest of Hispanic suspects in the fake-drug scandal. Still roiling the community is the firing of Terrell Bolton, Dallas' first black chief. Black leaders have sought to recall Mayor Laura Miller. Morale Officers are upset that the city has put a 13-week limit on the time for which employees injured on the job can continue to get their full salaries. Full pay used to continue for a year. The City Council has approved two of three promised annual raises of 5 percent for officers. But two years into the process, the city has sharply raised insurance deductibles and eliminated a service-longevity incentive. SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research   PANELISTS' AUDIO EDMONDS HUMANN JONES MILLER RUZO Listen to what Dallas leaders have to say on the subject: Real Real Real Real Real Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows

One by one, fired Police Chief Terrell Bolton went around the big, U-shaped table, emotionally reminding City Council members of favors he had performed in their districts. "I've only received a couple of calls, and this is what hurt me," he said. In stressing courtesies, not crime-fighting, Mr. Bolton's final appearance at the council horseshoe demonstrated a failing that ran through his tenure: City leadership lacked a clear focus on reducing crime. By the time of his firing last summer, Dallas was on track to log its sixth straight year with the worst crime rate among the nine largest U.S. cities. Yet even through that dismal cycle, the Police Department's crime-fighting performance got little tough scrutiny at City Hall. Instead, the department was hobbled by dwindling resources, a lack of vision, a special-interest culture, abysmal morale, racial division, micromanagement and second-guessing by city leaders. As City Hall goes, so goes the Police Department.

"Accountability for public safety is vague and diffuse," the Booz Allen study said. "The police chief, the mayor, City Council and city manager all feel accountable for making citizens safer, responsible for designing and executing a strategy. ... Yet no one is focused on how to reduce crime rates."

The final weeks and days of the Bolton saga featured just about every complication that plagues city government: racial resentments, personality clashes and the cop-vs.-civilian divide.

Underneath that, the lesson is that if the head is broken, the limbs can't function properly. If City Hall is a mess, the Police Department will suffer, and the people who live in the city will suffer.

Words such as "alignment," "accountability" and "best practices" may not cause Dallas residents to jump up and down -- the way they might, say, if their next-door neighbors were robbed. But the Police Department's travails underscore that what goes on at 1500 Marilla St. isn't just a political sideshow.

"Citizens are paying by living with a higher crime rate," Booz Allen asserted.

To be sure, crime is down sharply since Dallas' homicide-record years in the early 1990s. But most of Dallas' peer cities have seen crime drop much more quickly, Booz Allen found.

Probe deeper, and a picture emerges of a department that moves forward in one direction as it retreats in another. The Booz Allen study, internal police documents and follow-up reporting show that:

"The allocation of resources is inefficient and, consequently, ineffective in reducing crime," the consultants concluded.

Dallas residents are paying attention. When The Dallas Morning News polled residents last year about the top issue facing Dallas, crime was the clear No. 1.

And the poll found that Dallasites' satisfaction with the police is lower today than it was 10 years earlier -- despite the drop in crime since then, and despite their feeling safer at home and in their neighborhoods.

In an interview, Mayor Laura Miller was asked about the role of City Hall in the Police Department's troubles. She responded by renewing her criticism of Mr. Bolton and City Manager Ted Benavides -- the man who hired Mr. Bolton and, in August, fired him.

She bemoaned the lack of accountability noted in the Booz Allen report, recalling a job evaluation of Mr. Bolton by an assistant city manager that "gave him glowing marks on everything when the Police Department was in a shambles."

With a search under way for a new police chief, an efficiency study in the works and other initiatives in progress, Ms. Miller expressed optimism about crime reduction this year -- perhaps even by 5 percent or more.

"We're trying to be responsive and give the tools to the Police Department to get the job done," she said.

MR. BENAVIDES REJECTED BOOZ Allen's conclusion about vague and diffuse accountability for public safety at City Hall.

"I think it's a pile of doo-doo," he said.

"The police chief is in charge of the department, works for an ACM [assistant city manager]. I'm the city manager. I'm responsible," Mr. Benavides said in an interview.

Asked whether he was happy with the department's direction, Mr. Benavides replied: "I am. Crime is down."

For the public, at least, one of the biggest police-related surprises last year may have been the disclosure by The Dallas Morning News of the city's streak of worst-big-city-crime rankings. Dallas' status stunned city officials; Ms. Miller called it "unbelievable" and "inexcusable."

So did City Hall know what was happening with Dallas' crime rate?

"I think that there's so much data out there and sometimes you get distracted," Mr. Benavides said. "Everybody's OK, and all of the sudden an issue becomes really hot so you go address it. It wasn't violent crime. It was mostly property crime. I think that had something to do with it."

He and his top lieutenants, he said, were aware of the issue before The News' report. "We failed to say, 'OK, guys -- bring it up to a certain level, and let's go fix that issue.' And so I take responsibility for that," he said.

Less than a month later, he fired Mr. Bolton as chief.

Interim Chief Randy Hampton, one of the finalists to succeed Mr. Bolton, thinks the 3,000-officer department has "turned a corner."

He also repeated Mr. Bolton's oft-cited contention that crime in Dallas appears worse than it really is. That's because, he said, the Police Department does a better job than its peers in educating residents to report crimes.

"A high crime rate doesn't necessarily mean that you are in an unsafe city," Chief Hampton said.

IN THE 1970S AND '80S, THE DALLAS Police Department "was heavily involved in the national conversation on best practices," according to Gary Sykes, director of the Plano-based Institute for Law Enforcement Administration. It "was years ahead of other departments."

Now, hamstrung by political chaos and a vacuum in leadership, Dallas is a "department in trouble," he said.

"In that kind of atmosphere, things just don't get done very well and morale suffers," Mr. Sykes said. "If you see that kind of ongoing chaos at the top of the organization, that's a de-motivator. If they don't care, why should we care? That's the attitude that gets established."

What could help a police department stay on track on an issue as crucial as fighting crime? A strategic plan.

"A strategic plan is not just this thing that sits on a shelf," said John Welter, formerly the No. 2 police commander in San Diego, who is now the police chief in Anaheim, Calif. "You've got to have specific strategies, specific goals, specific objectives that are measurable, that are operational."

THE DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT, like the city of Dallas, doesn't have a long-term plan. It's not a new problem.

Arriving here in 1993 from Phoenix, former Chief Ben Click was stunned to discover the absence of such a plan. He made the idea an early priority. "I would send copies to the manager's office," he recalled. "I don't think anybody ever acknowledged it."

Drafted under Mr. Click, the last formally adopted strategic plan covered the period from 1998 to 2000. Under Mr. Bolton, a strategic plan covering 2000 to 2002, and a seven-year plan for 2001 to 2007, were drafted but never formally adopted.

Even the man who helped write the seven-year plan dismissed it.

"You set idiotic goals that are going to be easily attained or they are very general," said Sam Johnson, who headed the Police Department's management research unit before retiring. "The manager's office didn't care; the council didn't care."

In a recent interview, Chief Hampton said the department has a long-term strategic plan. But he could not explain its goals or the time period it covers. In a subsequent interview, he conceded that it was not a document he regularly used.

He also released a working document listing the organization's top seven 2004 goals, which include reducing crime and improving operational efficiency. Each commander's performance plan for 2004, he said, has been formed with those goals in mind.

Only last winter -- after the years of worst-big-city status and the turmoil of Mr. Bolton's firing -- did crime achieve recognition as an official City Council priority. It is one of five issues on the council's first-ever roster of annual goals.

THE DALLAS CITY COUNCIL'S ACTION is too fresh to see results -- on the streets or at police headquarters -- from designating crime as a top-drawer issue.

But the Police Department is full of examples of how the city proceeded when it wasn't measuring its policy choices against a strategic plan that spelled out public-safety goals.

Budget cuts eliminated half the clerical staff in the police pawnshop detail, which is frequently key to clearing burglaries and tracing stolen guns. The three remaining employees have to enter as many as 35,000 pawnshop tickets into the computer every month.

Thanks to other cuts, the homicide unit's 22 detectives juggle two to three times as many cases as do their counterparts in similar-sized departments.

The budget ax also has fallen recently on the police technology unit, notwithstanding the city's idea for using technology to replace laid-off employees and improve efficiency.

"Why are they cutting the solution in half while they are supposedly putting technology in place to mend the gaps?" asked Lt. Gene Summers, the commander of the unit, which has been reduced from 29 people to 13 in recent years. "I think it's absurd if they're calling upon technology to be a solution."

Nor are police cutbacks just a phenomenon of the recent economic downturn.

In the 1990s, ex-Chief Click converted more than 100 administrative jobs held by sworn officers to civilian status, reducing the sworn strength by the same number and reducing the budget. He had the City Council's blessing for the move.

But in subsequent budget years, he said, the council eliminated many of those same officer-to-civilian positions. The bottom line: He had to bring sworn officers back into offices to do administrative tasks, creating a net loss of officers on the streets.

"Unless you were paying close attention, an outsider would not ever recognize that," said Mr. Click, who spent about six months as an interim Dallas assistant city manager. "That was truly a work of art."

In his recent interview, Mr. Benavides pledged that the city would put more police on the street -- acknowledging, in essence, the fact that Dallas' number of police officers per capita has fallen during the last decade.

To determine the percentage of police officers in each department devoted full time to answering calls, Booz Allen examined budgets from the peer cities and filed open-records requests. Booz Allen found that Dallas was at the bottom of the pack.

Police officials dispute that conclusion. Responding to Booz Allen's survey, they contacted the peer-city departments and received different numbers.

Council member Elba Garcia suggested that it might be premature to conclude now that the department needs to be expanded to confront Dallas' crime problem. The efficiency study of the department now being conducted by Austin-based Berkshire Advisors Inc. will help determine the department's manpower needs.

"As a council we need to have a road map to know, 'Do we need to have more officers?' " said Dr. Garcia, who heads the council's public safety committee.

"We don't know that. Or do we need better management?"

MEANWHILE, CITY HALL TUGS the Police Department in three directions.

"The mayor, for example, has weekly meetings with the Police Department, the City Council members have discussions with substation commanders, and the city manager has established [the] operational review of the Police Department even while the city searches for a new chief," the Booz Allen report found.

Interviews and the department's internal review confirm Booz Allen's finding about crime-fighting confusion -- and the cost that it exacts.

"You get a city manager and the mayor-council, and you've got to answer to both of them," said Mr. Johnson, the former head of the police management research unit. "You end up funneling resources toward specialized problems or political problems that are perceived as important to a council member."

One council member requested that the Northwest substation "investigate an old toilet in the alley," according to the department's internal review. Another asked the Southwest substation to check on "a guy honking his horn" in front of a constituent's house.

"You've got guys on phantom special assignments everywhere," said Mr. Johnson, a retired sergeant. "They're not answering calls."

Mr. Benavides, asked about the police complaints of council interference, said: "I think what the officers are telling me is that maybe it's out of whack. And I have to go back and look at it and say 'Push back.' "

Most recently, the mayor and some council members thrust themselves into the police-chief search, a task that the charter reserves for the city manager.

Some council members publicly lamented the quality of the candidates, causing at least one applicant to bow out. That stance earned a scolding from some of their colleagues, who said the council should butt out.

Ms. Miller responded to the applicant-bashing by phoning at least three potential candidates to beg them to stay in the running.

Many rank-and-file officers view that activity as unproductive at best, and destructive meddling at worst. The mayor's involvement stirs an even deeper, visceral dislike.

"She's become the unofficial police chief of the city of Dallas. She's solving all the crime. Whatever we do is going to be wrong," said Officer Michael Walton, president of the Dallas Fraternal Order of Police.

Many rank-and-file officers remain furious over Ms. Miller's drive to reject a 17 percent police pay raise in a 2002 election. She labeled the boost a budget-buster, and the city offered three 5 percent annual raises instead. Cuts in benefits and even the mayor's launch of the weekly crime meetings rankle, too.

Asked about any hard feelings among the police, Ms. Miller responded: "The vast majority of police officers that I go up and talk to on the street are extremely nice. ... And we have good conversations and they say, 'We understand your job is tough.' And then they tell me a couple of things about their job that they want me to know."

THIS IS THE POLITICALLY CHARGED environment awaiting Mr. Bolton's successor, who will command a department that represents the city government's largest operating budget and employs nearly 30 percent of the municipal workforce.

City leaders hope to have a new chief by late May. That deadline will come long before the city could make any of the governance changes recommended by Booz Allen, if changes are ever made at all.

Could a new chief be successful, then, in the existing municipal structure?

Of course, city officials say.

Mr. Benavides has called the hire "a big deal," saying his reputation was on the line. Ms. Miller said Dallas needs "a charismatic, secure, self-confident leader as chief."

Dr. Royce Hanson, author of the 2003 book Civic Culture and Urban Change: Governing Dallas, gives a qualified "maybe" to Dallas' prospects of police chief success.

The right leader -- say, a forceful figure such as Ben Click or his predecessor, Bill Rathburn -- could get the department going in the right direction, Dr. Hanson said. In a paramilitary organization such as a police department, he said, a strong leadership presence can be decisive because directives flow downward through a clear chain of command.

But as proved by the examples of Mr. Click and Mr. Rathburn, the change won't be lasting without a more far-reaching overhaul of city government, Dr. Hanson said.

Mr. Click was less optimistic. After five years as Dallas' chief, he considers City Hall to be a barrier to successful policing. The next chief needs to be prepared for micromanagement to the point of not being able to "make a move without being told to, or, if they do, they'll be told to undo it."

"If you get a competent person," he said, "you're going to frustrate the hell out of them."

E-mail teiserer@dallasnews.com