Dallas City Council members are requesting further detail from Dallas Police after the department unveiled its plan to confront violence at apartment complexes during a meeting on March 8.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the Dallas Police Department began working on the plan months previous, after telling council members that apartment complexes are hotspots for murder, aggravated assault, and robbery in the city.
During the meeting with the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, Dallas Police Sgt. James Stephens revealed that around 19% — 2,222 of 11,452 — of the city’s violent crimes in 2021 occurred in apartment communities.
Stephens stated that Dallas Police plan to form a new uniformed team that will work full-time with various city departments, researching multifamily properties with high rates of crime and formulating intervention strategies for each property.
Dallas PD is also wants to boost law enforcement’s engagement with residents of apartment complexes through apartment community walks, events for young people, discussions with police, and crime watch meetings.
However, Adam McGough, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said he does not understand why Dallas police are not working with building inspectors and code officers and communicating with apartment community residents to determine the reason behind the crimes.
McGough also claimed Dallas PD left many questions unanswered. He said police did not specify when and where the plan would be implemented or with which city partners the department wants to collaborate.
Cara Mendelsohn, vice chairwoman of the committee, said the presentation disappointed her.
Mendelsohn explained she had hoped to see code recommendations, such as instructions on what the apartments should do about gates, lighting, security, and cameras. She said she had also wanted the department to enumerate a detailed standard that existing apartments need to meet.
“It sounds like this whole plan is based on crime and has to be really bad before we start getting involved,” Mendelsohn said, according to The DMN. “We’re already well aware of where the crime is happening, and we need to address it.”
Councilman Tennell Atkins urged Dallas Police to bring property owners and managers to the table.
Atkins, whose district stretches to parts of southern Dallas, said police should know the security companies of every apartment before officers enter or confront the complex’s management.
Jon Fortune, assistant city manager, agreed that more work needed to be done on the plan.
Fortune added that Dallas Police and city officials will return to the committee with a better strategy.
“We’re happy to come back to the committee with a further discussion about some of those strategies,” said Fortune. “I think that’s our intent. Whether or not we’ve conveyed that and done so in a way that meets the committee’s expectations today, that’s another thing altogether.”
