The Dallas Police Department is now allowing its officers to wear cowboy hats on duty. This minor change to the official uniform is being touted as a recruitment tool.
The people pulling you over for expired tags are going to look like they want to hogtie you if you step out of line, as this week, the Dallas PD took to Facebook to announce their latest uniform upgrade.
“Something new is landing at the Dallas Police Department,” the post declared, above photos of the department’s Love Field Airport Unit sporting shiny black cowboy hats atop their standard-issue badges and tactical gear.
Imagine if Chuck Norris in Walker, Texas Ranger was posted up at a speed trap, and you get the idea.
A Texas Police Department Is Using Cowboy Hats to Lure In New Recruits
The hats are optional but approved for any officer who wants to embrace their country roots or pretend they’re John Wayne. It’s part of Dallas’s broader recruitment campaign to hire more officers, which includes lowering educational standards, as police departments across the country struggle to meet hiring quotas.
Will the cowboy hat ultimately attract the less educated police officers that Dallas is apparently yearning for? Only time will tell. But leaning into the wild West aesthetic seems dumb enough to bring in the few people.
It’s hard to compete with the thrill of a cowboy hat in a profession that generally offers little more than pensions, high blood pressure, PTSD, and domestic violence.
Tagging their announcement with hashtags like #WeAreHiring, #WomenInPolicing, and, of course, #CowboyHat, the Dallas PD is leaning into a kind of soft propaganda designed to elevate the ordinary cop to something a bit more mythic. This myth will be shattered when said cowboy hat-clad recruit gets outrun by a shoplifting methhead.
The move also reveals a great deal about what it takes to attract potential recruits in 2025. The police brand has been so sullied across the country in the past decade that authentic regional fashions are being touted as a benefit.
The post Texas Police Department Is Trying to Recruit Cops With Cowboy Hats appeared first on VICE.
