Government

Oak Cliff is a significant area of the City of Dallas, which has a city manager/city council form of government. Dallas is governed by a 15-member city council that includes 14 members elected from single-member districts and the mayor, who is elected by the entire city. Currently, eight council districts include some portions of Oak Cliff.

The city maintains two service centers and police operations bureaus in Oak Cliff, and Oak Cliff is also the location of the city’s Municipal Center, which houses several city departments and is the primary permitting office for the City of Dallas.

Dallas has had an enhanced 9-1-1 system for several years for police, fire and medical emergencies, and implemented a 3-1-1 system to give citizens easy access to city government to report problems that are not life-threatening emergencies. The city is a leader in the nation in implementation of interactive community policing, and has both mobile police and permanent police storefront operations throughout the city, including several in Oak Cliff.

Dallas County is governed by a commissioner’s court, which has four commissioners’ districts (two of them include parts of Oak Cliff) and a county judge elected at large. The county maintains a sub courthouse in North Oak Cliff, along with two additional offices for area Justices of the Peace and Constables.

The area is home to several state legislative offices, and two members of Congress represent the area in Washington, D.C.