DPD Central gets new chief, more Lower Greenville bars

by Avi Adelman of Barking Dogs

LOWER GREENVILLE — There's a new chief in DPD Central Division, but he's an old hand at dealing with Lower Greenville.

Deputy Chief of Police Vincent Golbeck moved to Central effective July 1st. His predecessor, Chief Brian Harvey, has moved to the DPD's Fusion (high-technology) Center at DPD Headquarters.

Chief Golbeck served in the Central Division on Lower Greenville before working as commander of the Central Business Division in 1999. He was promoted to Deputy Chief in the Southwest Patrol Division by Chief David Kunkle in 2004.

The Dallas Police Department is getting ready for a major realignment in September, when the new South Central division opens.

Central DPD, which covers Lower Greenville, will soon include almost everything in the area south of Mockingbird Lane. Until the change, Northeast DPD covered the everything north of Vickery Boulevard along Greenville Avenue.

This change might result in a more consistent manner of applying the rules for noise, parking and generally bad party behavior to folks partying at bars on the north end of Lower Greenville.

The officers from Northeast division had no trouble ignoring these violations, since many of them worked off-duty for places like Red Jacket. The most immediate impact will be seen in planning for the 2008 St. Patrick's Day party, aka Drunks in a Cage. Instead of two divisions dealing with the problem, one division and one commander will take full responsibility for the overall impact of this drunken mess.