9 February 20–26, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents officers and increased funding for the pen- sion system — Dallas has debated what the hiring mandate means for the city’s future. On one hand, rating agency Moody’s Inves- tors Service downgraded the city’s economic outlook in light of the amendment, which could make it harder for the city to issue pub- lic bonds. On the other hand, Council Member Cara Mendelsohn argued that hiring more officers could be an opportunity to address residents’ concerns about crime, which 52% of residents rated a “major problem” in Dal- las’ 2024 community survey. Mendelsohn initially suggested the po- lice department’s recruitment goal be pushed to 400 officers for the fiscal year to counteract officer attrition and the number of recruits who flunk out of the academy and field training. The last day of the fiscal year is Sept. 30. “We have to be thinking a little bit differ- ently because the rest of the city knows this is a crisis. Somehow in this building, people don’t get that,” Mendelsohn said. “I’m not saying that the academy won’t be busting, but we need to be busting.” Interim Police Chief Michael Igo told NBC 5 last month that 400 officers could be an attainable goal for the department. In Monday’s meeting, Igo maintained that a hiring goal of 400 officers would be achievable for the fiscal year but warned that the manpower required to train those additional officers could “cause problems in other areas” because of the number of offi- cers who would need to be pulled from day- to-day patrol units in order to help with recruitment and training efforts. Even with Igo’s reluctant green light for a 400-officer mandate, several council mem- bers balked at Mendelsohn’s motion. Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins voiced concern that bumping the department’s hir- ing goal by 150 officers was an unattainable “knee jerk.” Atkins proposed raising the goal to 300 officers for the current fiscal year, 350 for the next and 400 in fiscal year 2027. Council Member Gay Donnell Willis supported At- kins’ resolution, stating that putting too much pressure on the department could harm the ongoing search for a new police chief. “We’re in a police chief search and I think if we want the most robust pool of candidates we can get — to impose a num- ber that I would love to see, that our resi- dents would love to see, that the Dallas Police Department would love to see, but that just isn’t a realistic bar in 2024-25 — to do that artificially, I think, could hinder us in having a really meaningful search,” Wil- lis said. Arguing against Atkins’ proposal of aim- ing to hire 300 officers, Mendelsohn said any police chief candidate would want to be hired to lead a robust department. She added that if money is an obstacle hindering hiring, the council will find the necessary funds. Last week, City Manager Kimberly Bi- zor Tolbert proposed a mid-fiscal year budget amendment that would move more than $7.7 million in federal COVID-19 funds from various city departments to police hiring and retention efforts. The council is expected to vote on the funding proposal in May, after the city council election. “If we can find more officers, we will find the money to pay them,” Mendelsohn said. “The issue is having people raise their hand and say, ‘I want to put my life on the line ev- ery day for all the residents of Dallas, Texas, and I’m called to do that.’” Atkins amended his motion to a 325 offi- cer goal for the current fiscal year. The sug- gestion passed 3-2 with Mendelsohn and council member Jesse Moreno voting against. ▼ POLITICS JUNK SCIENCE NO, DFW AIRPORT IS NOT SENDING DAN PATRICK PHOTOS OF YOUR GENITALS. BY EMMA RUBY T exas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick does not want to see your genitals, despite the claims made on a sticker noticed by a jet-setting Redditor who made a recent pit stop in a Dallas Fort Worth International Airport bathroom stall. (Actually, we didn’t send an inquiry to the lieutenant governor’s office, since those people never talk to us, so maybe he does want to see your genitals. Probably not, but we can’t say for certain.) The official looking poster — labeled “Security Notice” and decorated with the DFW Airport logo and crests for the Texas Department of Public Safety and the lieu- tenant governor’s office — warns bathroom goers of an ongoing Electronic Genital Ver- ification (EGV) pilot program, imple- mented by Patrick himself. The poster states that individuals may have their nether regions photographed electroni- cally while in the restroom, and that images of genitalia are being captured for “model training purposes.” “In the future, EGV will help keep Tex- ans safe while protecting your privacy by screening for potentially improper restroom access using machine vision and Artificial Intelligence in lieu of traditional genital in- spections,” the announcement reads. The poster adds that participation in the program is voluntary, and those interested in requesting their privates be removed from the EGV database can call the program’s of- fice. A quick google search shows the num- ber listed is that of Dan Patrick’s office, leaving one to wonder how many calls the lieutenant governor’s assistants has gotten today from those who would like any photos of their genitalia deleted, please. An image of the alleged genital camera appears to be nothing more than a standard toilet motion sensor. The prank is likely in response to Pat- rick’s push for legislative restrictions on transgender bathroom usage. Patrick intro- duced the “Bath- room Bill” in 2017, and though it fizzled out in the legislative session, he insists he “won” the fight against local policies that ensure individ- uals in public spaces and schools can use the restroom that correlates with their gender identity. We did ask DFW about the stickers in hopes of finding out how widespread the EGV program managed to get, but a spokes- person said the airport has not recorded any official complaints about the postings and has no information about their origins. “Ob- viously” they were not produced by the air- port, we were told. Online, hundreds of Reddit users offered praise for the “beautiful trolling” job, and dozens asked where they could purchase the stickers. Ya know, for research purposes. “Sure we can get rid of the Electronic Genital Verification program, but think of all the good paying jobs it is bringing to Texas!” one Redditor joked. “Be a shame if [Dan Patrick’s] office got flooded with calls from people demanding he deletes his dick pic files,” another com- mented. “A real shame.” That would be a shame, wouldn’t it? Even worse would be if countless loyal Texans de- cided to not wait to go to the airport and lend Patrick a hand by voluntarily sending in hard copies of genitalia pictures to the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, P.O. Box 12068, Austin, Texas 78711. That would be wrong. ▼ EDUCATION INCLUDE THEM OUT UNT PROFESSORS QUIT, FOLLOWING DEI CRACKDOWN. BY ALYSSA FIELDS W endy Watson teaches political science courses at the University of North Texas, and she has for a combined 17 years. When Watson isn’t teaching courses on constitutional law and American government structures, she heads the university’s pre-law program, advising law school hopefuls through their under- graduate careers. But this is her last semes- ter at the college. Watson is one of four instructors who have recently resigned from UNT’s political science department in the wake of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy changes. “I love my students,” Watson said. “I hate the thought of leaving them. I really do. It makes me so sad to think that they’re going to lose programs and support and recogni- tion of their identity and recognition of their importance in our community.” The lecturer cites an increasingly heavy workload for her resignation, but she also credits the building anxiety felt among profes- sors caused by the passage of Senate Bill 17. When Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB17, he effectively eliminated all DEI programs from public higher education institutions. The legislative move was one of the first in what would become a nationwide battle against DEI initiatives. DEI programs on college campuses were first established to promote equal opportu- nities for all students regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, age and ability. The earliest of these programs allowed women to break into once inaccessible fields of study. The latter days of these programs aimed to also address the educational and social disparities affecting students of color, immigrant students and members of the LG- BTQ+ community. The changes to the Texas Education Code when SB17 passed saw the dismantling of DEI offices, training and hiring and em- ployment opportunities on public campuses across the state. Brian Evans, president of the Texas Con- ference of the American Association of Uni- versity Professors, told the Public News Service that UNT instructors were told “to scrub words like class, equity and race” from their course titles. Over 70 courses within the College of Education ahead of the 2025 fall semester have new descriptions, thanks to the scrubbing of DEI-related language. The College of Education maintains, how- ever, that the course changes were not prompted by SB17, but Watson disagrees. “It doesn’t make sense that we would need to dramatically change the titles and descriptions of that many courses in order to comply with standards that have been around for quite some time,” Watson said. “I don’t know that the administration is pur- posefully deceiving us. I think one of the things that we’ve noticed with the imple- mentation of SB17 is that there’s a lot of de- centralization at the process. I am not sure, I think none of us are sure, where the impetus for some of the compliance is coming from.” Watson thinks the university was dip- ping its toe in the water of a more Brian Maschino 52% of Dallas residents marked crime as a “major problem” in the city’s 2024 community survey. A QUICK GOOGLE SEARCH SHOWS THE NUMBER LISTED IS THAT OF DAN PATRICK’S OFFICE. >> p10
