Almost a month after The Dallas Express asked for data on police service calls at a nuisance property on Technology Boulevard, City officials have yet to answer that request.
The inquiry came three days before DX published a story about how the building, once a call center for a French telecom company, had become a magnet for burglars, vandals, and vagrants. A worker at a nearby building, who asked not to be identified out of concerns for his safety and that of his coworkers, said then and again on Thursday that Dallas officials have done nothing to clean up the property.
“More broken windows,” the worker told DX. “Different random cars coming and going. Other than that — nothing.”
The 15-acre site at 9999 Technology Blvd. was abandoned in 2019 when Teleperformance closed the center as part of a restructuring plan that cut the jobs of nearly 400 people, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The company now employs a global workforce of about half a million and posted revenue of more than $8.9 billion last year.
Central Appraisal District records show the City of Dallas has owned the two-story gold-veneered glass-paneled building, constructed in 1984, since July 2023. The site’s certified value was almost $1.7 million as of last year.
DX has reported that polling indicates most Dallas residents believe the municipal authorities are doing a poor job of “keeping crime low; addressing homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling; keeping public spaces clean; facilitating construction and expansion through its building permitting process; and providing a favorable environment to conduct business.”
In its request for police data, DX sought the last two years of service calls, “especially and including burglary, trespassing, loitering, vandalism and squatting.” Under the Texas Public Information Act, those records must be released to DX within 10 business days. If an extension is required, the entity must request it and provide a reason for why it is needed. Dallas officials sought no such extension.
The building on Technology Boulevard is in Dallas City Council member Omar Narvaez’s District 6. He was asked again on Thursday to provide details on why the City acquired the property, why it hasn’t been secured, and what officials’ plans are for it. He did not respond by press time.
Earlier this month, DX asked Interim City Manager Kimberly Tolbert similar questions about the property, but she did not respond in a separate story about Dallas’ high turnover rate.