A veteran Dallas police officer has broken ranks and spoken out over what he claims is a department rife with bitterness and fear, following last week's slaying of five cops.

Officer Nick Novello, 62, who is a serving officer with 34 years on the beat in Dallas, accused his police chief David Brown of failing the public by being at the helm of a police team low on morale and over worked with insufficient pay.

He said the police chief was guilty of 'grandstanding' in his public appeal to hire more young black men to his force.

And he claimed that the Dallas Police Department had been plunged into an all time low with many disillusioned officers serving the public.

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Dallas police officer Nick Novello, 62, accused his police chief David Brown of failing the public. The 34-year veteran with the force claims Brown is at the helm of a police team low on morale and over worked with insufficient pay

He claimed that the Dallas Police Department had been plunged into an all time low with many disillusioned officers serving the public. Novello also claimed that much of the black community in Dallas distrusts the police

Brown reached out to black protesters angered at the shootings of young black men by officers and who had demonstrated on his city's streets.

He said: 'We're hiring. We'll give you an application. We'll help you resolve some of the problems you're protesting about.

'And we'll put you in your neighborhood, and we will help you resolve some of the problems you're protesting about.'

But Novello said large numbers of the black community in Dallas distrusted the police and had been wrongly arrested to help fulfill an arrest 'quota' laid down on officers.

He said: 'If he wants them to sign up, he had better stop criminalizing them for things like having small amounts of marijuana.

'Some officers fit people up by arresting them for being intoxicated when they refuse to show their IDs and that leads to a criminal record and difficulties in finding a job.

'Officers are under pressure to reach targets. There has to be an end to the arrest and ticket quota that exists within the Dallas police department.

'I am sick and tired of the public face of togetherness the chief puts on when he knows there's a lot of bad feeling behind the scenes.'

Novello, who was on duty the morning after last Thursday's murderous attack by Micah Johnson on his colleagues, said police chief Brown had defied calls from four police associations in Dallas to resign last spring.

Novello claims that Brown (pictured) was guilty of 'grandstanding' in his public appeal to hire more young black men to his force

Brown was at the center of a storm of protest when he introduced a wave of shift changes among staff who were already resentful because of long hours, staff shortages and low pay.

The Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, the Dallas Police Association, the Dallas Fraternal Order of Police and the Dallas chapter of the National Latino Law Enforcement Organization called for Brown to give up his job after a move to put hundreds of officers on different shifts.

Novello said: 'I am not talking about the rank and file officers who do fantastic jobs knowing their lives are in continual danger and that each time they go to work, they may not come home.

'I believe the public has a right to know. A real right to know what is happening and not just receive managed information.'

Asked how he would feel if he was fired from his $88,000-a- year job for speaking out, he said: 'I believe it would give me a platform to speak. Anything I speak about… I can prove everything I say.

'A lot of the black community are supportive of the police and that is wonderful, but a large number say police departments cannot police themselves.

'Not only can't we police ourselves, sometimes we go out of our way to protect the predator cop.

'In my estimation the quota system is corrupt. You are telling the officer who has a great deal of power that he is required to exercise that and generate funds for the city. Arrests generate money.

'As a beat cop, I see the computer, I see the calls holding, I see the inability to dispatch and deal with real time needs.

'We are vastly understaffed. Last month we lost 48-50 officers, which is unheard of.

'One officer left to go drive a Coca-Cola truck. Another who was 43 years old retired after 14 years saying "I'm out, I'm out". Morale is very low.'

He said several officers had resigned from the force after last Thursday's murders.

US honor guards place portraits of the five slain police officers during the Dallas Strong Candlelight Vigil at the Dallas City Hall Plaza in Dallas on Monday after five police officers died following an ambush assault by a gunman during a protest rally

This number included a friend, married to an attorney, who quit to seek a new career out of the police service because he had been so shaken by the atrocities.

Novello, who is married and is a grandfather,has had several legal run ins after being accused of whistle blowing.

But he said he was only driven by the need to expose the truth and serve the public with his deeply religious beliefs spurring him on.

He called for better legal assistance for Dallas officers who life the lid on corrupt officers, and says low pay also hits morale.

He said: 'We are underpaid by $15,000 at least (compared) to various departments. We are understaffed and we don't have a transfer-in policy.

'If we can't man the streets, the only viable solution would be that we embrace the assistance of the national guard or some federal agency to help us police the streets of Dallas.

'It would be very unpalatable because it would mean the loss of state city sovereignty.'

He claimed the public was being wrongly led to believe that a full police service was being offered up in Dallas.

He said: 'As a police officer I can look you in the eye and say "We have got your back, we are out there patrolling"… but no we are not.

'I can recall a number of days when I went to detail in the morning and there might have been seven of us there and after they have put officers on special assignment, there was one or two police officers for the whole district.

Black veteran Micah Johnson opened fire at a peaceful protest on Thursday, killing five cops and injuring 12

'There is a lot of anger out there that we have an inability to police ourselves and we will protect a rogue cop as a police department.'

Chief Brown, however, says he is proud that homicides and other violent crimes have been reduced over recent years in Dallas and released a YouTube video asking for ideas from his officers to continue the 'great success' the department had achieved over the pas year.

He said community policing had helped defuse tensions between police and minorities and that last year marked the 12th consecutive year of crime reduction and the lowest murder rate in Dallas since 1930.

But his maverick officer said: 'He is grandstanding. He knows it is all about public perception.

'I don't want to besmirch the man and I have nothing personal against him. I harbor no anger at him.

'He says he wants to hug officers when he sees them. Well, I would hug him back I suppose.

'But I have no confidence in the man at all. He is very dictatorial. He is not open to questions. It is his show.'

The police chief has agreed that low starting salaries of his officers are a problem.

Salaries start at $44,659 for a police officer and go up to $96,170 for a lieutenant. The Dallas Police Department has more than 3500 sworn members and over 500 non-sworn members.

It polices 1.3million people in the city of 385 square miles and is actively seeking new recruits on its official website.

Novello said he joined the Dallas Police Department as a park and recreation officer.

In 2007, he made the transition to 'beat cop' patrolling East Dallas neighborhoods. He said he has no intention of climbing the ranks.

In the past Novello was spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, a group of current and former law enforcement members who say that existing drug policies have failed.