An uptick in crime in April in his district has resulted in Council Member Jaime Resendez being named this month’s Crime Boss.
Resendez (District 5) was named May Crime Boss after his council district logged a 7.92% Crime Score year-over-year spike last month. This increase — the highest among all 14 Dallas City Council districts — was due to a year-over-year increase in criminal homicides, assaults, burglaries, drug offenses, and motor vehicle thefts.
District 5 is located in southeastern Dallas and includes the neighborhood of Pleasant Grove, where two homicides took place earlier this month.
While there were no murders committed in District 5 in April 2023, a 31-year-old man was gunned down last month in a parking lot in the 10600 block of Seagoville Road in Pleasant Grove. The Dallas Police Department has yet to identify the killer.
As covered by The Dallas Express, the victim, Fermin Castillo, left behind a legacy of kindness, according to his partner, Ruth Mariela Castillo.
The homicide contributed to Resendez’s Crime Score, alongside a considerable surge in property crime. There were 36 more motor vehicle thefts and 14 more burglaries reported in April compared to the same month last year. There have also been 16.8% more robberies as of May 12 compared to the same period last year, per data from the City’s crime analytics dashboard, with nine of those offenses recorded in April.
Drug crime is also up, with 25 violations logged last month compared to 24 in April of last year.
Council Member Tennell Atkins’ District 8 saw a Crime Score reduction of 1.7%, resulting in him being named runner-up for May’s Crime Boss title. The largest drop was achieved by Council Member Cara Mendelsohn, whose District 12 logged a 22.6% decrease thanks to fewer larceny thefts and assaults being reported in her jurisdiction year over year.
Although the Dallas Police Department has managed to lower the dial on certain crime categories through its violent crime reduction plan, these efforts have been dampened by a significant staffing shortage. Only around 3,000 officers are currently being fielded, whereas a City report recommends a force of approximately 4,000.
The results of this shortfall are most apparent in delayed police response times and persistently high reports of assaults and motor vehicle theft in Downtown Dallas, especially when compared to nearby Fort Worth’s city center. Fort Worth enjoys a specialized neighborhood police unit and private security teams patrolling its downtown district.
Meanwhile, Dallas City leaders have allocated DPD just $654 million this fiscal year. This represents far less taxpayer money going towards policing compared to other high-crime jurisdictions, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
The Dallas Express, The People’s Paper, believes that important information about the City, such as crime rates and trends, should be easily accessible. 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.