police officer

call taker

police dispatcher

public safety officer

office assistant

Dallas Police Department

Overall, this department is an okay place to work. You get a ton of big city cop experience very fast. You will be exposed to plenty of shootings, stabbings, foot chases, and many other exciting situations on a regular basis. This will keep you entertained for the first year or two on the job. You will be able to make plenty of arrests and feel like you've done some good. The money is better now with the recent raises in the past few years. There are lots of extra jobs to work to supplement your income. There are plenty of specialized units to apply for once you have a few years of experience. The academy is 9 months long but offers very good training. You work with amazing officers who will become your brothers and sisters. 

After a few years, the burnout does tend to set in though. You will realize that the DA's office refuses to go for anything that isn't probation. Prison time is rare for criminals in Dallas County. Dallas judges will give low bonds/PR bonds for violent criminals often resulting in their release. Anyone above the rank of sergeant plays politics and doesn't care about you as an officer. The public support of DPD is pretty low at the moment, especially after the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis. The call load is insane and doesn't leave much for proactive police work. You will go call to call to call all shift and get scolded by citizens for slow response time. City equipment is subpar, and the jail computers never work. The job is dangerous as you will be policing in the roughest parts of Dallas. Due to being short staffed, be prepared to ask for days off more than a month in advance. We used to have yearly bids to get better schedules and days off, but we haven't had one in over two years now.

Overall, I would recommend working for this agency. Get your experience and lateral to another department, or stay for a few years until you can promote so that you can become a detective or join a specialized unit. 

Dallas is tough place to be a cop at. I worked patrol for just under 4 years. Its a very negative environment from co-workers and supervisors...poor leadership, and subculture that is embedded in its ways. If you can deal with all the negativity internally, along with the danger and the worst that society has to offer, then good on you.

P.S. Chances are if you make it to 20 years + at Dallas PD you are either going to look 10-15 years older than your actual age or develop cancer or have a stroke by 52. I'm not joking, I've seen it!

Best choice I ever made was to resign to bigger better things. You will work with a lot of uneducated people (military or 45 hr college req) and there is a lot of favoritism at every level: gender, racial, ect.

You'll be making 40 grand forever with pay cuts, ect and work odd hours and days for a good decade. Sounds like a winner huh rookie..lol

The Dallas Police Department was a great place to work. No two days were the same except for multiple days in the classroom at the academy. Most of my coworkers were outstanding people with a strong work ethic and high integrity. A typical day at work involved responding to various calls for service from the public and figuring out how to best handle each situation.  As a supervisor I was introduced to a whole new world. I learned to develop an overall management style that all officers knew that I adhered to. I also learned how to motivate individual officers with slightly different styles that best suited their personalities. The most enjoyable part of the job is the interaction with coworkers and the citizens of Dallas. Helping coworkers and citizens alike made this job very fulfilling.

When I started working here I was proud to work for my community and try to make it a better place.  Sadly, I am certain that no one else there feels the same.  Add on top of that management and how they have continued to chase off all viable employees is a huge con to this job.  Management has no regard for schedules or anything OTHER than the job.  They can AND will approach you 10 minutes before your shift ends and tell you that you are now working a double and you are expected to work an additional 8 hours.  It doesn’t matter if you have small children at home, or a family, or plans.  If you do not stay then you get in trouble.  But you cant really get fired due to being protected by Civil Service.  So if you get in trouble, instead of doing any sort of documentation on the situation, Management just makes your life miserable on a daily basis.

I’ve worked for the dept. since 2018.  Unfortunately I got a major injury during training and it took about a year to get back to finish the academy.  They could have ended my employment at any time for any reason.  Instead they paid my normal salary and found a job that I could do while healing.  I hope that it’s as professional when I graduate and start working for real.  My idea of who and what cops are  has evolved.  They are real decent people who pretty much all came here bc they believe in doing the right thing.  Still has some of the big city problems as far as I can tell but a great community.  Will update after being on the streets for a bit.

Strong minority hiring and promotion quotas. If you are white, very limited promotions or ability to relocate within the department. There is always crime and people to arrest. The pay is good and the offduty jobs are plentiful and also pay well. Most officers work 60-80hrs a week. It's no longer a job if you want to help people. Now it's go from one 911 call to the next and sometimes to jail. I averaged 4 car chases and 2 foot chases a week. Each of those can end badly. I never had a citizen's complaint, but internally there were many. Back stabbing by a few is extreme. Most officers are decent people.

The work at the Dallas Police Department is rewarding and can be extremely challenging, whether in patrol, where there is great variety and also substantial danger, or in investigative units where the work can be extremely rewarding. The work load in the investigative units, especially now when the department is short of manpower, can however be stressful and discouraging, and after a period of time the caseload can become overwhelming. The chain of command, leadership, management, have always been the weak link in the organization. There are many great leaders, but there are also many bad leaders. The pension system is in distress, and employees are required to pay in a substantial chunk of their salary into the pension.

I had a horrible experience with the City of Dallas Police Department. After applying and successfully interviewing I was granted a tentative job offer. I was ecstatic and ready to start my new job! However, the department unfairly and unethically refused to process the paperwork for my background investigation, which cost me the job. I was then cruelly banned for life from ever being allowed to apply again for any position with the entire department again, without justification or cause!

I was ignored by the entire chain of command of management, who covered-up. To this day the man who I was supposed to replace is listed as a “temp” in their directory.

The City of Dallas Police Department has a very serious cultural problem.


What is the best part of working at the company?
Do NOT work for Open Records or the Records department at the Dallas Police Headquarters. Worse experience EVER. Management including supervisors  were low key messy so that they could please the pettiness of the Manager over the unit. Hot mess!!!!!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Messiness, unorganized, cliques, unfairness, not on one accord in training. It was like a CHILDISH high school.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Open Records and Records unit HORRIBLE and messy!!!!

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Stressful and childish. The unit was like the movie, “Mean Girls”.

A typical day of work is answering over 2000 calls in an 8 hours in emergency situations. This job is very fast paced. The people I worked with were very supportive and always there if any co-worked needed advice on a call. Working for communications in 911 taught me how to listen to people and investigate certain situations to give the caller the best help I could possibly give in a timely manner. The hardest part of this job is the hours worked and having to work weekends and holidays. It is truly rewarding working for a place where you can help people and make a difference on a daily basis.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Police officer 4 salaries reported	$69,799 per year
Call taker 6 salaries reported	$46,348 per year
Police dispatcher 1 salary reported	$53,363 per year
Public safety officer 3 salaries reported	$67,463 per year
Office assistant 1 salary reported	$41,254 per year

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