On The Fence With Ken Kalthoff

Tuesday morning a big wreck tied up South R.L. Thornton Freeway in Dallas.  It was caused by a school zone traffic infraction suspect who was being chased by Dallas County Precinct 5 Constable Deputies. 

Dallas County Constable and Sheriff Deputies have a much different chase policy than Dallas Police Officers.  The city forbids its officers from chasing suspects for traffic violations.  The city policy would not have permitted pursuing a school zone offender onto a busy freeway.

In April Dallas City Councilmembers asked Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle to talk with Constables and the Dallas County Sheriff about adopting the city policy for their work inside the city limits.  The request came after a March 28th pursuit in the Dallas City Limits by deputies with a different Dallas County Constable in which innocent people were also injured.  The suspect in that March chase was shot to death by deputies after he shot at them.  However, it began over an inspection sticker infraction, another violation for which Dallas Police Officers would not be allowed to chase.

Tuesday, City Councilman Steve Salazar repeated his request that Police Chief David Kunkle talk with the Constables and Sheriff. 

Kunkle did not return my message left through his spokesman Tuesday.  Precinct 5 Constable Jaime Cortes told me Kunkle never spoke to him about the issue since Councilmembers’ April request.  Cortes says he feels comfortable with his current policy and sees no need to change.

After out 5pm story I heard from accident victim David Rush.  We did not know the background of the chase when we first spoke to him at the scene.  Rush says it sounds like the wreck should never have happened and he supports the city’s policy. 

Here’s a link to our 5pm story:

http://video.nbc5i.com/player/?id=287847

Click comments above and tell me what you think??  Does the city or the county have the best policy for public safety?

Dallas garbage must smell far worse than the garbage in other North Texas Cities.  For years now, Dallas Councilmembers have insisted on twice a week garbage pick up, saying that Dallas residents just could not accept once a week pick up like other cities have. 

Again Wednesday, Dallas Councilmembers declined to set a schedule for switching city wide to once a week garbage pick up.  In the past several years Dallas has boosted recycling, most recently with big blue carts in which people can dump all their recyclable items without sorting them.  Most of the city only gets recycling collection every other week.  Some residents in those areas complain the recycling bins are overflowing by the second week.

Several parts of the city have been testing once a week garbage pick up combined with once a week recycling collection.  In these areas garbage volume has declined and recycling volume has increased.

The city staff proposes to expand the test program to most of North Dallas over the next couple of years, but has no schedule for the rest of the city.  Here’s the briefing the city council heard about it Wednesday:

http://www.dallascityhall.com/council_briefings/Briefings0808/once_weekly_service_082008.pdf

One member told me beforehand that once a week trash collection and weekly recycling would go city wide within two years.  But, given the chance to make that happen, members instead took no action and decided only to talk about it some more in the future.  Some other members told me they still want twice a week pick up.

Here’s our 5pm story:

http://video.nbc5i.com/player/?id=286639

From up here “On The Fence” (above the stink) I would really like to know what you think!!

On vacation recently, I visited the Newseum in Washington, DC.  Very prominent hanging from the ceiling is Chopper 5!

It’s a very cool museum where you can be a TV reporter!

I figure there’s not much chance for this guy.

But the place is filled with all sorts of cool stuff including part of the Berlin Wall.

There are many museums in DC and this one is not free, $20 a person.  But it was neat.