David Michael Kunkle

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As published in the Dallas Morning News on July 15, 2023:

Former Dallas police Chief David Kunkle dies at 72

Kunkle, also a former chief in Arlington and Grand Prairie, is credited with improving morale and building relationships with communities.

Former Dallas police Chief David Kunkle, a revered leader who oversaw significant drops in crime and strides in transparency and reform, died Friday after a years-long battle with Lewy body dementia. He was 72, his wife Sarah Dodd said.

Widely respected in Dallas and beyond, Kunkle served as the city’s top cop in 2004 until his retirement in 2010, capping a tenure in which the department’s reputation grew nationally and with the city’s residents.

Throughout his long career in public service, Kunkle is credited for improving officer morale and enacting smart policies which caused a ripple effect nationwide. He first wore a badge in 1972 as a beat cop in Dallas’ Northwest Patrol Division. He also served as police chief in Grand Prairie and Arlington.

“I had the honor of meeting Chief Kunkle the week that I arrived in Dallas,” current Chief Eddie García said Friday in a written statement. “He left a legacy and very high bar to achieve for any leader of this organization.”

After Kunkle turned 69 in November 2019, he was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a disease caused when protein deposits, called Lewy bodies, develop in nerve cells in the parts of the brain tasked with thought, memory and movement.

Kunkle saw doctors after a trip for his birthday, where the couple returned early because Kunkle wasn’t acting like himself. He was confused about where he was and why he was there.

The disease progressively weakened what was hailed as the former chief’s greatest strength: his mind.

Kunkle and Dodd, a former television reporter, have spoken with The Dallas Morning News about his diagnosis. Dodd said Friday she wasn’t yet ready to talk about her husband.

“He managed dozens of crises a day as chief and always made it look easy,” Dodd said in a 2021 article.

“He had an international reputation for turning around organizations in turmoil. He was known for his impeccable judgment. To me, that’s the significant contrast: Someone who was a successful big-city police chief — for 25 years of his career — and now it’s often basic concepts that are difficult for him to navigate. This is a serious brain disease that has no cure and doesn’t discriminate.”

Kunkle’s success as a police officer kicked off soon after he answered a help-wanted ad as a 21-year-old college student in search for a job. He graduated first in his academy class, then became the youngest captain in the department’s history.

He previously told The News his fears on the job were never about getting hurt or killed — “they were always driven by not being able to perform my job and letting somebody down,” he said.

As chief, he turned the tide in the Dallas Police Department, which had been plagued by scandals and lawsuits before he took the helm. Kunkle knew he had a challenge ahead. He told The News after he retired that there always seemed to be an element of protest occurring.

Looking back on his tenure, he said his greatest accomplishment was bringing more normalcy to the department.

García said in a statement to Dallas Police Department employees Friday that Kunkle was a progressive chief who was “willing to make tough decisions.” His leadership echoes today in how “we police our city and in our current policies and procedures,” García said.

But his impact in policing wasn’t limited to Dallas.

The Arlington Police Department said in a statement that Kunkle, a “remarkable man and public servant,” helped shape their legacy as “a leader in community policing” during his stint as chief from 1985 to 1999. He then served the city as Deputy City Manager.

“Those here at APD who worked for him often share stories about his sharp wit and his keen ability to remember his employees’ names and assignments — which makes how he was taken from us even more heartbreaking,” the statement said.

The department said it was honored when Kunkle and his family visited in 2021 to donate personal items, including his old badges.

“These important pieces of APD history will help us keep his story and legacy alive for many years to come,” the statement said. “Our hearts are with his family, his friends, and all of the employees whose lives he touched.”

After his retirement as Dallas police chief in 2010, Kunkle became a consultant and was hired by the RAND Corp. to work on a project called “Effective Policing for 21st-Century Israel.” He told The News around that time he wasn’t interested in applying for a city manager position in Dallas if it opened, saying he liked “dealing with more real issues, the kind of things that you deal with in a police department.”

“I like the personality of the cop shop and the strange, kind of unusual people you work around,” he told The News. It didn’t take him long, however, to turn an eye toward public service again.

In 2011, he unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Mike Rawlings among others, and former Mayor Laura Miller wrote an op-ed for The News calling him Dallas’ “unlikely savior.”

On Friday, Miller told The News she spoke to Kunkle a few months ago, when his memory was still good, and that Dodd had called to tell her he died. They worked together closely while she was mayor, and he was humble and great at his job, Miller said.

She remembers being “so underwhelmed” when they first met during a reception at city hall, where he was being welcomed.

“By the way, he always hated this anecdote, but I love to tell it,” Miller said.

Miller said she went up to him and told him she was excited he was the new chief. He looked down at his shoes, didn’t look her in the eye and “kind of mumbled,” she said.

“Much later, I realized that he was very shy,” Miller said with a laugh. “This short, unassuming, shy man turned out to be one of the most intense, most focused, incredibly strong city police chiefs that I think Dallas has ever had.”

Miller said that while some police chiefs might be thin-skinned or ego-driven and not want to work with politicians, Kunkle was the opposite.

“David Kunkle was so self-confident, and so certain about what he thought he needed to do as chief that he always welcomed input, criticism, new ways of doing things,” she said.

Sr. Cpl. Terrance Hopkins, president of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, said Kunkle typically had “a very straight look” on his face and didn’t strive to be in front of cameras. Kunkle was extremely knowledgeable and driven by crime statistics and policies, Hopkins said.

“That guy could kick off information, stats, locations, addresses like nobody’s business,” Hopkins said.

Kunkle was dedicated to changing the department, even if it meant enacting landmark unpopular decisions, Hopkins said. He recalled how Kunkle ended the Dallas Police Department’s car chase policy, which morphed into a policy that only allowed chases for violent felonies, not for low-end misdemeanors. It was one of the most restrictive car chase policies in the nation.

Officers were extremely upset because they were used to “chasing the bad guy,” Hopkins said. But over time, he said, it became increasingly clear that Kunkle was right to limit those chases, which are often dangerous and can result in fatalities or serious injuries.

“He’s going to go down as one of the greats because of the way he dealt with the troops, did his business, conducted himself professionally all the time no matter where he was at,” Hopkins said.

Ron Waldrop, a former Dallas assistant police chief, said Kunkle’s decision to end the car chase policy was a difficult one, but Kunkle “just had a vision and he just stuck to it and he just demanded that everybody accept responsibility.”

Waldrop, who retired from DPD in 2010 after serving 40 years, said he stayed with the department longer than he intended because he wanted to retire when Kunkle did. Waldrop called his former boss the “brightest person in police management that I’ve ever met.”

He said Kunkle could see where the department stood on a national level without losing sight of day-to-day patrol operations. Kunkle was a reliable leader with a clear goal of advancing the department, which made him enjoyable to work with, Waldrop said.

“He wanted you to take responsibility for your areas … He wanted for you to know what was going on around the country,” Waldrop said. “He challenged you regularly in meetings to make sure that we have the best policies.”

Waldrop said he helped with investigative functions after Kunkle promoted him to assistant chief. But when it came to patrols and community relations, Kunkle “took a direct approach to that himself.”

Kunkle was committed to being “totally transparent,” owning up to mistakes and fixing them, Waldrop said.

“That was refreshing, obviously,” Waldrop said. “That’s just the kind of guy he was ... He wanted to be the best department and he didn’t want to be the center of attention … That’s the kind of person you want to work for.”

It was a shame, Waldrop said, Kunkle wasn’t elected Dallas mayor.

“He would have been excellent,” he said.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a tweet that Kunkle’s service saved lives and set a new standard for police leadership nationwide.

“He will be remembered always for his dedication to keeping Dallas residents safe,” the mayor said.

Sgt. George Aranda, president of the Dallas National Latino Law Enforcement Organization, said Kunkle changed the face of the department. Kunkle placed Aranda over the recruiting unit and started a Hispanic Recruiting Team, which many — even on Kunkle’s own command staff — believed would fail, Aranda said.

The opposite happened. Recruiting classes, which used to only have about one to three Spanish speakers, grew more diverse until they were more than 50% Latino, Aranda said.

Aranda said Kunkle often repeated the phrase “placing the right people on the right bus,” which remains a blueprint in the department today.

“A chief beyond his time who will be missed,” Aranda said.

He is survived by his wife of 17 years, Sarah Dodd; son, Michael Kunkle; mother-in-law Vicki Dodd; Grandchildren: Sarah Belmares, Abbigail Kunkle, Jeremy Kunkle; brother Steve Kunkle and his wife Melissa and their children: Matthew Kunkle, Rachel Kunkle, Nathan Kunkle, Hannah Hollingsworth; sister Kay Myers and her husband Ron and their children: Jessica Biggs, Jacob Myers, Zachary Myers and Andrew Myers.