Policy Assigns Detective Handling Manziel Case To Street Patrol
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Some Dallas Police officers say a new DPD policy is slowing down justice for domestic violence victims and accusers including the ex-girlfriend of NFL Quarterback Johnny Manziel.
Manziel has been waiting nearly a month to find out whether he will face criminal charges or a citation for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend Colleen Crowley at a Dallas hotel in January.
CBS 11 News has learned the detective overseeing the case was interrupted by having to serve a two week shift in patrol answering calls.
"The detective assigned to work his case instead of working this case is out answering three and four calls or signal three and four calls out on the street," says Ron Pinkston, Dallas Police Association President.
Pinkston says those signal 3 and 4 calls are low priority.
He says the high profile case involving Manziel is an example of how the plan to rotate desk officers to the street only slows down justice for victims and overworks officers.
"We tried this a couple years ago [and it] was a total failure," says Pinkston. "We need those officers back in the office filing the cases so the other officers can go get those arrests."
Pinkston says detectives burdened with patrol shifts will see their cases back up and those involving accusations of domestic violence need to be addressed immediately.
"That case is dragging on [and] everyone is wanting to know what's gonna happen. This is all on the city manager's shoulders. He is supposed to make sure we have the proper number of officers to be able to serve the citizens of Dallas and that doesn't seem to be happening," says Pinkston.
Pinkston says patrol rotation is also contributing to a 27 percent increase this year in violent crime.
DPD has not responded to CBS11's request for comment.
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