Dallas police officer suspended over 'racist' challenge coin design
DALLAS - Dallas Police confirm to FOX 4 that they have suspended an officer who created a rendering of a challenge coin that the head of the Dallas Black Police Association called "racist."
Officer Caleb McCollum was given a five-day suspension during a disciplinary hearing with Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia, according to Dallas Police.
McCollum was on administrative leave since the news about the coin came out in August.
The coin depicts a drug dealing character named "dough boy," who is holding an assault rifle, cash, and wearing gold teeth. It also has a car with giant gold rims facing off with a Dallas PD vehicle.
It also has the words "Big T Plaza," which is a shopping center off I-35 and Ann Arbor in Oak Cliff that primarily serves black customers.
Challenge coins are typically commemorative coins used by many organizations, but especially law enforcement, to boost morale and camaraderie. Officers will exchange them among one another.
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The rendering was put together by McCollum, a white officer in the South Central Division.
The Dallas Police Association told FOX 4 at the time that the rendering was posted to its members page on social media and was later taken down. It added the coin is in "very poor taste."
It is not believed any coins were actually made.
Reverend Ronald Wright has served on the Community Police Oversight Board.
"What was he thinking to create something like that?" he questioned. "Could this be how the majority of a certain group of Dallas Police Department officers feel?"
Tuesday, FOX 4 requested an interview with Chief Garcia to ask what ultimately led to the five-day suspension, but the department declined.
Last summer, Councilman Tennell Atkins had called for the officer to be fired. However, Atkins also declined to comment on the suspension on Tuesday.
So did the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, which denounced the design last summer.
38 officers tried to buy the coins before they were made, according to the Dallas Morning News. That includes Hispanic, white, Black and Asian officers.
"But at the end of the day, it was something that an officer should not have done," Wright said.