By Taylor Adams Cogan
Leonard Fleming didn’t set out to be a familiar face in Deep Ellum. Like so many in the community, he just kept showing up.
Before the Deep Ellum Task Force officially existed, Leonard was already there — answering calls, walking blocks, and taking initiative when others avoided the neighborhood altogether. As a Dallas Police officer assigned to the Central Business District, Deep Ellum was technically part of his beat. In practice, it was a place some officers treated as an assignment to get in and out of as quickly as possible.
Leonard was different.
Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Leonard joined the Dallas Police Department in 2017. From the beginning, he gravitated toward the kind of work that couldn’t be done from inside a patrol car: He walked, talked, and listened. When nothing else was going on in the city, he’d head to Deep Ellum on his own time, simply because he felt called to.
While Leonard said some officers opted for other parts of Dallas, he didn’t. He saw a neighborhood — complicated, loud, and imperfect — but full of people worth knowing.
When the Deep Ellum Task Force was formally created in 2022, Leonard became one of its first neighborhood-dedicated officers. For him, this assignment didn’t change much; it just made official what he was already doing.
His approach was rooted in what many would call community policing, though Leonard was operating this way long before the phrase became trendy. To him, it wasn’t about enforcing every infraction that crossed his path. It was about understanding what people were actually experiencing and intervening before small problems became bigger ones.
Sometimes that meant talking to bar owners about noise. Sometimes it meant addressing vandalism or car break-ins. Often, it meant helping residents, business owners, and patrons find a middle ground. Enforcement was part of the job, but it wasn’t the starting point.
“It’s not just issuing fines or making arrests,” he says. “It’s figuring out what’s causing the issue in the first place.”
That mindset matters particularly in Deep Ellum, a neighborhood that welcomes all walks of life within its small boundaries. The area’s not unique in having experienced strain in trust between police and the community. Leonard knew the reputation officers carried when they came through and how quickly respect disappeared on both sides when no one wanted to be there.
So, he made himself visible. Not just during peak weekend hours, but at all times of day, walking the neighborhood like anyone else. He ate at restaurants, checked in with people by name, and over time, became recognizable, not just as an officer, but as Leonard.
“It was hard at first,” he says. “But people saw what I was doing. They knew I wasn’t there just because of an assignment.”
That consistency made a difference, with results including bar owners and residents starting to call and text him directly. When he resigned from DPD in February 2024 after eight years on the force, people reached out to tell him how much his presence had mattered and how much they missed it.
Leonard’s service didn’t start with policing. He served seven years in the Texas National Guard as an infantry sergeant. The throughline, he says, has always been the same: helping people, serving his community, and showing up where he’s needed.
Leonard doesn’t talk much about recognition, though he was once highlighted in the news for going above and beyond to help someone in need. He doesn’t dwell on the things that went unnoticed either. That’s just part of the work.
“I don’t brag about myself,” he says. “I just love helping people. That’s my calling.”
For a stretch of time in Deep Ellum, that calling meant walking the neighborhood, listening, mediating, and reminding people that care, when practiced consistently, can change the feel of a place.
