The biggest issue, for me, has been their long term intractable hard-headed refusal to even admit that there is a problem, much less actually DO something to fix it. At least they're now admitting that there is a problem. To give credit where it's due, they are also making some tepid overtures toward hiring more officers.

My contentions have very little to do with the DART PD rank and file. The average patrol officer has an almost impossible job. The constant stress from being understaffed can't make for pleasant working conditions in what is, under optimal circumstances, a difficult job.

Almost all of my ire is directed at their (mis)management and the managers who are doing the "managing". Almost all of my criticism is directed toward them. Almost all of my prodding is for them to hire additional officers.

My figures, which I published in November of 2005, said that DART should have 672 officers minimum. The number for DART is so high, in large part, to the geographic dispersion of the officers. If they have more square miles to cover, it takes them longer to do it than it does if its only a few blocks. I've yet to see any numbers from DART as to what they would consider adequate staffing, or any sign that DART has a *serious* plan to remedy their staffing situation.

I'm sorry, but offering to pay $8,000 a year less than the competition just doesn't strike me as a *serious* offer. It's a token effort, at best. At worst, it makes DART seem miserly and undesirable as an employer. It is for that, and a host of other reasons, that I have long advocated that the DART PD be dissolved as a separate entity.

Policing of the various DART locations would fall to the police departments where those facilities are located. The individual DART PD officers would be transferred to the various member city PD's to become staff there. The money that currently goes to fund DART having a seperate PD would be partitioned out to the member cities to provide a police presence at DART Rail Stations, Transit Centers and Park-n-Ride facilities.

This wouldn't cost DART anymore than they are already paying per officer and it would eliminate several things that are quite redundant. Why maintain a separate shop to work on the police vehicles? Every local PD has that anyway. Why maintain a separate dispatch center? Every local PD has that anyway. Why maintain separate training and certification for your officers? Every local PD has that anyway. That's all money that could go toward hiring more officers.

I'm sure that by the time you divide 138 officers between the 13 member cities, that they could absorb them without even noticing. That's an average of 10 officers per city. Since the current number of officers employed by most of the member cities ranges into the hundreds, I doubt that they'd even be noticed.