Kunkle named Dallas police chief (currently Arlington Deputy City Manager)

The Dallas Morning News ^ | May 10, 2004 | By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

[MeekOneGOP]

Kunkle named Dallas police chief

11:18 AM CDT on Monday, May 10, 2004

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

File

David Kunkle

Arlington Deputy City Manager for Citizen Services David Kunkle is the new Dallas police chief, city manager Ted Benavides said this morning.

Mr. Kunkle will take over Dallas' 2,900-member department on June 28.

Mr. Kunkle served for 17 years as police chief in Grand Prairie and Arlington. His appointment completes an exhaustive selection process directed by City Manager Ted Benavides.

"David Kunkle brings to this position extensive law enforcement and community relations skills necessary to address the city's number one priority of reducing crime," Mr. Benavides said in a press release. "His success as police chief in Arlington and Grand Prairie as well as his early career in Dallas stood out as I listened to police association representatives' and community leaders' input during the past few weeks about who should lead the department."

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Before being named deputy city manager for Arlington, Mr. Kunkle spent 14 years as police chief building that city's department into a progressive force and diversifying the police ranks to reflect the city's demographics.

Mr. Kunkle started his career with the Dallas Police Department in 1972. He quickly climbed through the ranks, becoming a captain at age 29, the youngest ever at that rank in Dallas. He left Dallas to become Grand Prairie's police chief in 1982, staying there for three years before moving to Arlington.

In 1987, Mr. Kunkle established the Arlington Citizens Police Academy, the third such program in the nation. At that time, the Arlington Police Department was more than 90 percent white. Today it is 12 percent African American and 12 percent Hispanic. More than 20 of the department's 97 supervisors are minorities and 8 are females. Mr. Kunkle also stressed the importance of the educated officer. Today, more than 80 percent of sworn personnel and 85 percent of the city's patrol force have bachelor's degrees.

Mr. Kunkle earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Texas at Arlington.

His compensation package will include a salary of $138,623 plus other benefits to be determined by the Council's Public Safety Committee.

Mr. Kunkle will be formally introduced at noon today in City Hall's Flag Room. He will meet his command staff, police department employees and members of the police associations Monday afternoon at police headquarters.

Dallas has been without a police chief since August, when City Manager Ted Benavides fired Terrell Bolton for poor job performance. Bolton's tenure was marred by scandal, lawsuits by demoted commanders, questionable hiring practices and one of the highest per capita crime rates in the nation.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/051004dnmetkunkle.1aa9519d1.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Good luck !

[jtminton]

I wonder when all the Cheif Bolton lovers are going to start crying racism.

[MeekOneGOP]

This guy faces in the Dallas PD the same as Dubya did coming in.
He has a mess to clean up.

[No Blue States]

They already did when Bolton was shown the door.
Its funny that it didnt help or change a thing for them.

Good luck to this guy, he will need it.

If Arlington cops are the result of his leadership, im completely unimpressed.

[whereasandsoforth]

Oh My Lord!! A white face!! There is going to be a wall-eyed hissy-fit thrown like no other ever seen!

This selection is unbelievable! The City of Dallas sold itself down the river of minority-worship years ago. This poor guy, whether qualified or not, won't last as long as Air America. They can't have this sh*t happening.

[MeekOneGOP]

LOL ! You mean you don't think John Wiley Price and Al Lipscomb will rally around Kunkle ? :^)

[The Lumster]

"David Kunkle brings to this position extensive law enforcement and community relations skills necessary to address the city's number one priority of reducing crime," Mr. Benavides said in a press release

Unfortunately the real #1 priority for the new chief will be mollifying the race hustlers and poverty pimps that infest this town. And then there is the 3 ring circus that is the Dallas City Council!

Good luck with all that

[Diddle E. Squat]

I dunno, they'll be a lot of sound and fury from the usual suspects, but I bet their calls for civil disobedience will be pretty much ignored by the black community, just like when Bolton was fired. Lipscomb just isn't raking in as much under the table dough these days, so not as many thugs on his payroll.