Crime trends in Council Member Jaime Resendez’s District 5 in southeastern Dallas seem to be bucking the violent crime decline being touted by City officials.
While overall crime has dipped down slightly in District 5 — which comprises the neighborhoods southeast of the intersection of Military Parkway and North Jim Miller Road, including Pleasant Grove — some categories of violent crime have jumped in 2023.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, robberies had increased by 10.7% year over year as of November 7, increasing from 149 incidents in 2022 to 165. Reports of rape had also spiked by more than 10%.
Aggravated assaults, however – which the City claims have fallen by nearly 10% citywide – inched up in District 5. The Dallas Police Department has logged 445 offenses, an increase of 0.2%, so far this year.
Resendez’s council district further saw a 37.6% hike in motor vehicle thefts, which have also been incredibly prevalent in Downtown Dallas.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, DPD has been operating without enough officers for years. It currently has between 3,100 and 3,200 officers on staff, far fewer than the roughly 4,000 recommended by a City analysis.
The shortage has been felt in Downtown Dallas, which logs far more crime than Fort Worth’s downtown area. The latter is reportedly patrolled by private security guards and a special police unit.
A request for comment was emailed to Council Member Resendez, but a response was not received by press time.
The Dallas Express, The People’s Paper, believes that important information about the city, such as crime rates and trends, should be easily accessible to you. Dallas has more crime per capita than hotspots like Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York, according to data from the FBI’s UCR database.
How did your area stack up on crime? Check out our interactive Crime Map to compare all Dallas City Council Districts. Curious how we got our numbers? Check out our methodology page here.
