It was 1972 when David Conkle jd
the Dallas Police Department.
He was young and ambitious.
In just a few short years,
he became the youngest captain
in the department's history.
At the age of 31, he left to
become the chief in Grand Praire
and later the chief in Arlingto.
I David M Conkle do
solemnly in 2004 when the Dallas
Police Department was in crisis.
Kunkel came back. He was hired as a chief
to reform DPD and rebuild trustt
had been lost with the community. I'm
here to do everything I can
to improve the professional
reputation of this department.
We were in the era of turmoil.
People did not trust us.
The department was
in the middle of the fake drug
scandal where officers were caut
planting fake drugs on people.
There were some controversial ds
of minorities in police custody.
And the violent crime rate
was at an all time high.
He took us from one of the worst
cities in crime, worst cities
in police community relations,
and he put in effort that was bd
on enforcement and prevention
and community collaboration. One
of the first things he did was banned
the LVNR, also known as the chokehold,
after a suspect died as a resul.
When he did that, it set off a
Firestone. It was an uproar.
Officers were upset and criticized the move.
Kunkel, undeterred, brought in
Tasers for officers to use inst.
The Taser has resulted in fewer
injuries to officers and fewer
injuries to the suspect. He
valued more than anything
else the sanctity of life.
And so that's what I think
is what caused him to make
the decisions that he made.
He told the media he was troubly
the number of people and offices
killed and injured in police ch,
so in another controversial mov,
implemented one of the strictest
chase policies in the nation,
prohibiting officers from
chasing people unless they were
wanted for a violent felony.
I don't know that we calculatede
number of lives that have been saved by
his progressiveness and his thinking.
He stabilized the department ata
point where we were at a low and
implemented a number of things
that that carried us through.
Kunkel also worked with the community to
rebuild trust by buying more than 500 in
car dash cameras and laptop computers.
That really brought in the squad
car cameras. And yeah, he recogd
the value of that immediately.
During his tenure, Dallas saw sx
consecutive years of crime reduction.
The city reached its lowest
homicide rate in 40 years,
going from 248 murders the year
he started to 148 when he left.
In his going away speech,
he thanked the rank and file, te
people on the streets,
the men and women on the street.
Their jobs are the most difficu.
They, I think,
become the most frustrated with
some of the things I've done.
But everything I've done is chif
has been to protect their inter,
to keep them safer.
Some of his commanders who wentn
to become chiefs in other cities
say Kunkle was light years aheaf
everyone else in modern era policing.
He was the head of everything
in police and that's why I said
he's the best police chief in
the nation for the last 20 year.
There's not, there hasn't been a
better representative in progree
policing outside of Chief David Conkle.
Kunkle would say while he loved policing,
the love of his life was his wife, Sarah.
When he was diagnosed with Lewy
body dementia several years ago,
she took care of him.
Those who knew him say he was kind and
funny and wanted to do what was best. Great
guy. Great chief. Yeah. Great c.
Outstanding leader. Yeah.
David Cunkle leaves behind a
legacy that is woven into the
fabric of the Dallas Police Department,
the city, and in the hearts of e
who loved and respected him.