In the running for Gray County Sheriff is Dallas Cline, who is currently serving as a Patrol Sergeant for the Pampa Police Department.
Growing up in the panhandle, Dallas has about 15 years of experience in law enforcement, having served in multiple capacities within the field. He would graduate from Midwestern State University with a degree in Criminal Justice in August of 2011, and during his time there, he had also been attending the Police Academy where he would graduate in October of that same year.
He acquired a job at the Wichita County Sheriff’s Office working in the jail before being offered a job at Iowa Park where he would be for a little over two years. In 2014, he would go to work at Royse City where he would quickly move up the ranks and become a field training officer before leaving around 2019. He would enter into the field of education teaching criminal justice for a couple of years before ultimately moving to Pampa and working for the police department where he would move up the ranks to Patrol Sergeant. It’s here that he feels truly blessed because the PD has helped him further his education and training essential to do his job and do it well.
“Pampa Police Department has been really good to me. They sent me to FBI-LEEDA Trilogy which is a premier law enforcement command school, and I’m currently going through LEMIT which is also a command school. So they’ve been really good to me and sent me to a lot of stuff.”
While many of those who serve in law enforcement tend to come from a long familial line of law enforcement officers, Dallas’s story is far different, and it’s his story that has inspired his vision for the things he wants to accomplish if elected.
“The only person in my family who is in law enforcement is my mother’s brother who was Assistant Chief in Mustang, Oklahoma, but I didn’t have much contact with him growing up. To be honest, I come from a long line of criminals. My dad was a methamphetamine addict for most of his life and was in and out of prison. In fact, I’ve picked him up from prison. I’ve always wanted to do something like this.”
During his time with Pampa PD, Dallas has taken notice of the operations within the sheriff’s department, and due to the growing concerns he has, he feels that it is his duty to help steer the sheriff’s office in a new direction.
“I believe the sheriff’s office is not being run properly. People have seen and heard things, and I think there’s still things to come, and someone needs to get in there and run it right. Currently there’s not very good communication or intelligence being shared. I think the police department has done a really good job of trying to put criminals in jail and do the right thing, but it seems like the sheriff’s office is not doing that.”
“The patrol people work good together, but there have been things that have happened in the past that have caused a rift between the chief and the sheriff, and I don’t think it’s ever recovered and I don’t think it ever will recover. We should be working hand-in-hand, we should be training together. When there’s an alert, we’re going to be responding together, and currently we just don’t do anything hardly at all together. Stopping narcotics, stopping burlgaries and thefts-it’s all the same. All the criminals out in the county are the same ones in the city, and we should be sharing intelligence. We’re in this together, so let’s do this together.”
If elected, Dallas has a list of certain things he wants to see happen including more in-depth training, faster response times, and a higher rehabilitation rate for inmates through ministry.
“The jail is the single most worrisome thing for a sheriff no matter where you are, it’s at least half if not more of your biggest liability in the county. If you have a death in the jail, you better have everything squared away, because if you don’t, it’s going to cost the county and people could potentially go to jail if they didn’t do their job properly. There are lawsuits that cost the county money, so it’s very important that it’s run properly. Currently at the jail, they have on-the-job training, but they’re kids. I think the training is very, very low, and they need to be going to an in-person jail academy to make sure they are running the jail properly.”
“One of the things that I’ve mentioned that I would like to see done is getting the response times down for McLean and Lefors. I pulled up a Freedom of Information Act request and it shows the response times at 45 minutes. That tells you that they’re going from the sheriff’s office to McLean or Lefors. I know it’s unrealistic that you can get those times down to 5 minutes or so like here in Pampa, but you can get those times down lower. Assign deputies out there, and if they get bored, rotate them. Our population centers around Pampa, Lefors and McLean, so they need coverage. They have domestics and other dangerous stuff down there, and they deserve to have that coverage.”
“I don’t think there’s much structure with the deputies, and sometimes I see them all in Pampa. I don’t mind a deputy being here, but you don’t need all three. They need to be out in the county.”
“I also want to get a ministry in the jail. I know that pastors actually go to the jail now, but it’s not very consistent and there’s not much structure to it. I want to open it up to them and have a spot at the sheriff’s office so they can start doing it more often. I want to talk to all the pastors and do a donation thing because I know there’s not much money out there and I don’t want to cost the county any money. The reason I’m so compassionate about that is because of my dad. I deal with criminals all day and I’m sure many of them wouldn’t care, but if someone wants some help, then we should be offering something. It could be that very day that someone wants to listen.”
“I’m not trying to force a religion on anyone, but I see this as the best way to get some kind of rehabilitation.”
“I just want to be a sheriff who leads by example. When deputies see the sheriff acting in certain ways, then they think they can act that way too. We’re not perfect, but we also chose this job and we need to be trying to do the best we can to be ethical.”
Early voting will be February 17th through February 27th at the Gray County Courthouse, 205 N. Russell in Room 104. Times are: Tuesday, February 17th through Friday, February 20th-8 AM to 5 PM
Saturday, February 21: 7 AM to 7 PM
Sunday, February 22: 12 PM to 6 PM
Monday, February 23 through Friday, February 27: 7 AM to 7 PM.
Election Day, March 3: 7 AM to 7 PM
Last day to register is February 2, 2026. Mail ballots will begin going out on January 24, 2026. Last day to request ballot by mail is February 20, 2026.
