Megan Thomas

DPD Officer Megan Thomas steps in as Officer Chelsea Geist is promoted

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia named Officer Megan Thomas as new LGBT police liaison earlier this month, replacing Officer Chelsea Geist, who received a promotion to the crime response team. Geist said she had hoped to continue in her liaison position at least through Pride month but had to take the position when it opened. Her last official act as liaison was being among the officers who raised the official city Pride flag over Dallas police headquarters.

Thomas has been on the Dallas police force since 2018. Her law enforcement experience before that included stints with a sheriff’s office in Illinois and working private security with the Miami Transit Authority.

She served in the Navy for five years under don’t ask, don’t tell. She was stationed in Key West where she wasn’t allowed to participate in city events, she said, but could offer support. City events in Key West were mostly LGBTQ events, and by “support,” she means “participated as much as possible.”

Thomas said serving in Key West under don’t ask, don’t tell was “Strange times.”

Throughout her military service, Thomas had a girlfriend who was living in an apartment off base while Thomas was paying for housing on the base. It was, she said, just another example of the inequality LGBTQ people in the military at the time faced.

Thomas was married in October 2015, just over three months after the Obergefell marriage equality decision. It was, she said, a simple wedding: “I bought a pretty dress,” and her wife wore slacks and sweater. “We went to City Hall and had a party at my parents’ house in Illinois,” she added.

While Thomas waited a few months to tie the knot after marriage became legal, a friend of hers from school was half of the second couple to marry in the state.

Before her recent liaison appointment, Thomas was stationed in Northwest precinct. “I love that station,” she said, noting that officers there aren’t rushed and have time to get to know the neighbors and the neighborhoods, although the call volume is high.

Thomas said she’s looking forward to implementing the new chief’s Safe Place program. To launch it, she’s forming some committees staffed with “allies who will help with the program.”

The idea behind the program, she explained, is for businesses to display a “Safe Place” sticker so someone who has been a victim of a crime knows that business is a safe place for them to go to call 9-1-1 and wait for help to arrive if necessary.

Often someone who is the victim of abuse will run out of the house without a phone. Or victims of a hate crime just don’t have a safe place to call police and wait. She said businesses can participate by providing a safe place for victims to get an accurate description to police “so we can help people.”

The LGBT liaison position began informally in Oak Lawn. Before Mica England sued DPD for refusing to hire gay and lesbian cops,when Dallas police were still raiding gay bars, Officer Earl Newsom, a beat cop who patrolled Cedar Springs Road, did something radical: He went into the LGBTQ-owned businesses and introduced himself.

Newsom endeared himself to the community as someone in the Dallas Police Department LGBTQ folks could trust. And he became such a beloved member of the community, he was named grand marshal of the Pride parade in 1987.

In 1993, Ben Click was appointed Dallas’ new police chief. When he learned of England’s lawsuit against the department soon after moving to Dallas, he officially changed hiring policies and appointed Officer Lynn Albright as the first official LGBT liaison. Albright had already been on the force, but no one — except anyone who ever met her — ever guessed she was lesbian.

When Albright retired after more than 12 years in the position, Laura Martin became liaison in 2005, serving in that position for more than 10 years. During that time, she was promoted to detective and is usually tapped to provide security for visiting dignitaries. She left the liaison position when it was moved to the Office of Community Affairs at Dallas Police Headquarters.

Officer Amber Roman and then Geist served shorter stretches as liaisons to the community.

Geist capped her time as liaison with the raising of the official Dallas city Pride flag over DPD headquarters. While about 100 officers attended, Geist said, for every one who did attend, another two or three couldn’t because they were on patrol or working in a different part of the city at the time.

Thomas agreed. She said she was surprised by enthusiasm in the department for flying the flag, noting that several officers told her, “Hey Megan, I can’t be there, but that’s really cool.”

Thomas said another goal of hers as liaison is to resume departmental training classes on working with the LGBTQ community. Those classes have been going on since Albright’s early days as liaison in conjunction with Resource Center and Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance.

She is, she said, excited about her new position and about working with a chief who’s excited about working with her and our community.