Dallas, TX

The Dallas Police Department (DPD) paid $15 million in documented police misconduct settlements between 2010 and 2020, according to records compiled by the Dallas Advocate, CBS Dallas, and the Wall Street Journal's analysis of settlement data from major U.S. cities. Texas's limited public records access means the true total is likely higher than what is publicly documented. The Wall Street Journal identified $6.9 million in Dallas settlements from 2010 to 2014; subsequent reporting by CBS Dallas found $10.8 million from 2012 to 2017, and the Dallas Advocate reported $10.1 million from 2010 to 2020.

The defining case in the Dallas dataset is the killing of Botham Jean. On September 6, 2018, off-duty Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger returned to what she believed was her apartment after a long shift, entered the unit directly above her own, and shot 26-year-old Botham Jean - a Black accountant from St. Lucia who was sitting on his couch eating ice cream. Guyger claimed she believed she was in her own apartment and that Jean was an intruder. Jean was unarmed.

Guyger was convicted of murder in October 2019 and sentenced to 10 years in prison - one of the rare instances in U.S. history of an on-duty or recently off-duty police officer being convicted of murder for a shooting. The conviction was upheld on appeal. The Jean family filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Dallas seeking $100 million in damages. As of November 2024, the New York Times reported that the family would not receive the full $100 million sought; the final settlement amount has not been publicly disclosed.

Dallas is not under a federal consent decree and has not been the subject of a DOJ pattern-or-practice investigation. For insurance underwriters, the Dallas dataset is notable for two reasons: first, the Botham Jean case represents a scenario - an officer entering the wrong residence and killing an unarmed occupant - that standard use-of-force actuarial models do not adequately price; and second, the pending civil exposure ($100 million sought) dwarfs the entire 10-year settled total ($15 million), illustrating the gap between historical loss data and forward-looking liability in high-profile cases.