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Dallas Police Sergeant's Suspension in Ticket Case Overturned

DALLAS, TX – A supervisor who instructed Dallas officers to make up occupations on citations will only receive counseling after an assistant city manager overturned his five-day suspension ordered by Police Chief David Kunkle.

Sgt. Walter Clifton gave his patrol officers a list of suggested jobs – such as “Human Relations Clerk” for suspects believed to be prostitutes and “Pharmacology Specialist” for suspects thought to be drug addicts – to fill in on their tickets to homeless people and other transients.

Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan wrote to the officer that she had reviewed the evidence presented at his appeal hearing and was reducing his suspension to “documented counseling.” The letter also ordered that he be given back pay but did not offer any reasoning for the decision.

“My decision in this matter is non-appealable,” she wrote in the May 13 letter.

Ms. Jordan did not respond to e-mails. Her office said she was out of town on a business trip and not available for comment.

First Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans also declined to comment. “I’m unaware of her decision-making process,” he said.

Chief Kunkle declined to comment on Ms. Jordan’s ruling. But he has in the past criticized decisions that have led to the reduction of discipline or reinstatement of officers fired for serious misconduct. The chief has said reversing such decisions by police commanders undermines attempts to hold officers accountable for their actions.

Mr. Evans noted that recent changes in the disciplinary process require that all first-round appeals of fired officers be heard by the city manager rather than assistant city managers.

“The city manager is now hearing those appeals to address the concerns of the chief,” Mr. Evans said.

Sgt. Clifton’s attorney, Christopher Livingston, said his client was pleased with the decision. “Sgt. Clifton has been with the department for many years and has an exemplary service record,” Mr. Livingston said.

At the same time that Chief Kunkle suspended Sgt. Clifton in late March, he also fired two officers and suspended a third after investigators concluded that those officers had been writing tickets in improper ways, including a few cases where two officers had people sign blank citations.

Their appeal hearings are pending.

Sgt. Clifton had supervised the officers at various times. He admitted to internal investigators that he told patrol officers to obscure the fact that people were homeless by writing in fake occupations on tickets.

Sgt. Clifton told investigators that he believed municipal court judges would not issue arrest warrants on unpaid citations if they thought a person was transient. Municipal court officials have since said that is not the case.

It is unknown exactly how many tickets listed fake occupations and whether such incorrect information on tickets has affected any cases.

But Sgt. Clifton told investigators that he issued the instruction several years ago. He typically supervised about eight to 10 officers who write tickets, each writing hundreds of citations every year.

The Dallas Morning News and police investigators independently found dozens of examples of the improperly filled-out occupations on the tickets.

In the undated memo obtained by investigators, Sgt. Clifton told his officers that they should “feel free to come up” with their own alternative occupations as “long as court services would not likely see through the title and figure out they are in fact ‘homeless.’ “

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