UPDATE, on November 17, 2020, we were provided confirmation from TCOLE that Dallas Security Force was an approved school, as of August 3, 1983. There are many who attended before its approval. The story still has valid components. It is upon the government to provide truthful information within Open Records requests.
The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) has provided us, through Texas Public Information Act (TPIA), with the Personal Service Record (PSR) for all those that claimed to have worked for DALLAS LOVE FIELD (capitalized because it’s in all capital letters on the PSR) as “peace officers.”
We have requested for TPIA from the City of Dallas for information on the change of “DALLAS LOVE FIELD,” to “Dallas Police Department, Public Security Officer.”
The first question one must have, is why did the City change it from “Peace Officer,” to “Public Security Officer?”
Interesting thing about history, prior to this moment (1987) in time, there were no authorizations for “security officers/guards,” to be employed by a government, directly.
They would potentially be employed by a company and under a contract to provide services, as many companies do today.
Dallas Love Field (DAL) has been property of the City of Dallas for a long time. The city owned DAL during the time period (1970/80s) of the records we received from TCOLE.
We also noticed there is not a “Chief,” or some other assigned top leader. All say “Peace Officer,” so we submitted another TPIA to TCOLE for the list of “agency administrators,” for the agency.
We found out about the DAL matter when we reviewed the City of Rowlett’s records, based upon a previous matter, explained in our other stories.
We will start by showing the TCOLE rule changes, that apply to these records.
The next item to review before looking at the PSRs is the Basic Peace Officer Course (BPOC) requirements for particular years:
Another item to review before, we finally get to the PSRs is a TPIA request and return:
Oh, where did we get “Dallas Security Force?” That’s an easy one to answer:
Wait, what? The people at DAL had to take a BPOC program at an school and TCOLE has no record of the school every being used?
Our concerns have been moved to the Executive Director of TCOLE.
So, as you scroll through all the PSRs for the Agency, remember these questions:
- Why is a Chief not listed?
- Why is an institution not listed for the BPOC?
- Why does it say “test,” as the institution, for the BPOC?
- Why do many of the PSRs have “in-service,” listed for the initial BPOC trainings?
- Why do some other PSRs have “in service,” listed with similar BPOC hours for employment with other agencies? Which, many seem to be conducted at true academies and a few by cities that don’t have “academy licensing.”
- Why did it switch from DAL to Public Security Officer?
- Why would the City want to change it from “Peace Officer,” to “Public Security Officer?”
- Why was it not Dallas Police Department before it was DAL?
There are those that worked for DAL that appeared to be properly certified (before arriving or by taking a legitimate BPOC), but there are more than a handful that seem to still be employed without taking proper steps for licensure.
We will embed the PDF later, but for now, you can access the file here:
We will update this story soon.