The allegations were leveled recently by Dallas Police Association President Ron Pinkston, who said a recruit was allowed to retake and ultimately pass the police academy driving test despite multiple failures. A week ago, Brown provided few specifics but said that all policies had been followed. He vowed to launch an internal affairs investigation to find the source of Pinkston’s information.
On Thursday, Brown offered a few more specifics. The recruit in question did fail his driving test on multiple occasions, DPD said in a press release, and there was a discussion in the chain of command of whether to fire him, but a decision was ultimately made by Assistant Chief Patricia Paulhill to offer remedial training and a retest.
This, Brown says, is in accordance with police academy policy. Each recruit gets two shots to pass the driving test before receiving remedial training and two shots after. This particular recruit hadn’t received remedial training until Paulhill made her decision.