Police officers in the Dallas Police Department are taking longer to respond to phone calls these days, and this is because the officers are mentally exhausted from going through intensive training.
"The bottom line is response times are up, violent crime is up, and officers are fed up," Ron Pinkston, the president of the Dallas Police Association, told CBS 11 News, according to CBS DFW.
Plenty of the 3,000 officers that Pinkston represents are moving slower because of their apprehensions toward safety and worries about potentially breaking new department rules.
"The motivation is a little lacking," he told CBS. "I think it's just the fear of doing the right thing and that they are going to get disciplined for doing that."
For example, officers are scolded frequently for the way they drive during high-speed chases or for when they often have difficulties on how to make decisions when it comes to using deadly force.
"When they see criminal suspects that look suspicious, they are not going to engage those suspects from fear that nobody's going to support them," said Pinkston, according to The Washington Times.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown on Monday told the City Council's Public Safety Committee that officers are spending more time in training so that not many police officers are sent out into the streets.
Officers are also being trained how to scale down certain situations where mentally unstable or violent people are involved, which Brown believes will lead to safer interactions and less shootings committed by officers, according to the Dallas Morning News.
