Dallas police cut extra protection at Bush home

Dallas (Texas, US), July 9 (ANI): The Dallas Police Department has cut back on some of the additional protection that the department provided around the Preston Hollow home of former President George W. Bush.

In addition to the usual Secret Service protection, Dallas until last week had stationed one on-duty tactical officer per eight-hour shift on the street outside the president's home.

The estimated cost of that service was 300,000 a year, according to police officials who asked that they not be named.

"We just had to cut it," said one police official, who agreed to speak on the condition on anonymity.

The city of Dallas has been struggling to deal with a 190 million dollar budget deficit.

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle, who declined to discuss specific changes said, "Our decision on how to deploy people around security issues like this is not dependent on the budget. They're based on other factors."

The cuts to the president's security detail were first reported by KTVT-TV on Tuesday. (ANI)