Editor's comments:  Posted with permission from KTVT 11.

12/03/03  Ch. 11 Report of DPD Hiring Practices
By Ginger Allen and
Investigative Producer Todd Bensman

Reacting to disclosures that former Police Chief Terrell Bolton allowed dozens of under-qualified and problem cops to wear a badge, the City Council this week began searching for the right solution to fix the problem. Top commanders summoned before the council's Public Safety Committee proposed fine tuning background checks and tinkering with other standardized guidelines that have long been in place.

But a key question is raised: Are these the areas where the council should focus attention?

Some council members question whether the issue is about tightening standards or more about regulating an authority wielded by the chief of police - whoever that might be - to override those standards.

CBS-11 has reported dozens of incidents where the fired Police Chief Terrell Bolton's administration used this authority to waive decisions to wash out underqualified officers who failed background checks, failed at the training academy and performed poorly during field training. CBS-11 has learned that in some cases, officers recommended for termination three or more times were allowed to stay as part of efforts to meet Bolton's minority hiring goals.

One officer recommended for termination because he "couldn't logically process information." was allowed to stay. Top commanders kept several who could neither shoot straight or drive safely. One was allowed to stay after failing a psychological examination, records show.

Interim Police Chief Randy Hampton, when asked by Council member Gary Griffith about the chief's authority to override existing hiring standards, downplayed how often the practice occurred under Bolton.

"I would say very few times," he said. 

Council member Mitchell Rasansky suggested that perhaps a panel of top commanders should make such important decisions.

"I'm not so sure one person should have the right, rather than maybe three, maybe the chief and some deputy chiefs," Rasansky said.

In 1989, the city passed an affirmative action ordinance setting minority hiring goals for the police department, and top commanders at the time came under pressure to meet the new hiring objectives.

But by 1994, newly appointed Police Chief Ben Click ordered a secret internal audit in an effort to learn why so many of the recently hired minority officers were being disciplined and fired. The audit concluded that two of Click's predecessors had undermined the department's traditionally tough hiring and retention standards so they could meet the affirmative action goals. Authors of the audit - which Bolton's department shredded last year - blamed the informal policies of the police chiefs for the unusually high numbers of investigations and disciplinary action against minority officers hired during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Former Chief Click says he put an immediate halt to the practice of overriding standards for the remainder of his term. He retired and Bolton took his place in 1999.

Officials involved in the police department's hiring process tell CBS-11 that Bolton immediately began exercising the authority to override background, academy and field training standards in many of the same ways condemned by the audit and which had occurred prior to the Click administration. Soon after his appointment, Bolton listed as a top objective increasing the number of minority officers. He often boasted of how he had increased those numbers as one of his top accomplishments.

One of the most recently uncovered cases of police chief intervention involved Officer Ransom Funches. Records from the officer's personnel files illustrate how a police chief and top command staff can intervene to shield or officers who have had problems.

Officer Funches first joined the Dallas Police Department in 1992, at a time when top commanders were under pressure to meet the city's hiring goals.

Between 1992 and 1999, Officer Funches was investigated a total of nine times, his personnel records show. He was disciplined with unpaid suspensions four times and received documented counseling in three instances. Personnel records show the allegations ranged from insubordination and unsatisfactory job performance to filing a fictitious report and attempting to influence a witness in a criminal investigation.

In the last instance, in 1999, Officer Funches received a 10-day suspension but quit the department before serving it. Five supervisors recommended in April of that year that he be listed as "not eligible" for rehire.

In a hand-written notation on the "not eligible for rehire" memo, Chief Bolton set himself apart as the sole dissenter. "I would make a determination only after Mr. Funches was evaluated for duty fitness when and if he ever attempted to return for employment," Bolton wrote.

Bolton became chief several months later, in October 1999. Funches told CBS-11 that the chief and a newly promoted colleague, Deputy Chief Floyd Simpson, reached out and asked him to rejoin the department.

Then, in a January, 2001 memo the chief changed Officer Funches' status to "eligible." The newly minted police chief wrote in a letter to Funches: "While on the department, you were involved in several issues that resulted in disciplinary action being taken against you. However, my opinion was, and is today, that you satisfied your disciplinary requirement and did leave the department in good standing.

"As the Chief of Police, I have reviewed your file and have made the decision to rescind your "ineligible for rehire" status," the chief wrote.

Funches became an officer for the second time in April 2001. But almost as soon as he rejoined the department, Officer Funches began running into trouble again. He has been investigated an additional three times for various allegations, including insubordination and abuse of sick time.

This week, the officer told CBS-11 he has been a victim of racist supervisors who harbor a vendetta against him and that none of the 12 investigations targeting him during his career had any merit. He also said top commanders improperly listed him as not eligible for rehire and pointed to several positive evaluations. In his 1999 resignation letter, Officer Funches wrote: "I really don't think most people employed here could or would have withstood the continual provocation, harassment, financial setbacks and mental and physical stress intentionally caused by these administrators as long as I did..."

The Dallas City council will eventually vote on the standards issue. But at the moment, none of the proposals on the table includes changes that would restrict a police chief's ability to override whatever new tougher guidelines that may emerge.

"This is a continued deal between the public safety committee and police department because we're going to continue to strengthen and tighten the probe," Griffith said.