Dallas police chief to resign by end of 2020

Dallas Police Chief U. Reneé Hall, the first Black woman to lead the department, announced Tuesday that she is planning on resigning from the position, saying she is pursuing inquiries about “future career” opportunities. 

“These past three years have been saturated with a series of unimaginable events that individually and collectively have never happened in the city of Dallas,” Hall wrote in her resignation letter. “I must keep my next career step confidential.”

While Hall initially said she would leave by Nov. 10, she later agreed to stay on until the end of the year after a request by the city manager. 

Hall’s resignation comes just after her three-year anniversary in the role and increased challenges facing the department. 

{mosads}According to the Dallas Morning News, there were inconsistencies revealed in the police department’s after-action report on the first few nights of protests following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. 

Last month, six Dallas council members said they had lost trust in Hall and the department as a whole after the city received little information on the use of chemical weapons and less-lethal ammunition during the June 1 arrests of more than 650 protesters. Dallas District Attorney John Creuzot announced last week that he was launching an investigation into police treatment of protesters. 

Hall, 49, also faced criticism for setting a goal for the department of lowering violent crime by 5 percent, which some saw as too little after the city experienced the highest number of homicides in a decade last year.