Mayor Eric Johnson and Chief Eddie Garcia are claiming there is only so much the City can do to reduce violent crime and that the justice system needs to step up and prosecute violent criminals rather than letting them back onto the street.
During a Tuesday event with the Dallas Regional Chamber, Mayor Johnson boasted that Dallas is seeing violent crime fall for the third year in a row. However, he acknowledged that the city is likely to see an increase in homicides this year.
Johnson claimed Chief Garcia’s hotspot policing model is working but is “being applied very selectively right now,” and the Dallas Police Department needs more officers to expand the program further. Only around 3,000 officers are fielded in total, considerably less than the 4,000 recommended in a City report.
The mayor added that there is only so much the City and DPD can do if the justice system continues to release violent criminals back onto Dallas streets.
“We [have] to get help from the judges. We [have] to get help from the DA. We [have] to get help from the people to make sure that the jailhouse is not a revolving door,” Johnson said.
“My own police chief … would tell you [that] we lock up guys every day that we see two days later on the street, and we locked them up for something really bad … like an aggravated assault, i.e., an attempted murder. And we see him back on the street in a couple of days.”
“What are we doing?” the mayor continued. “We have these people running around on very light monitoring that shouldn’t be out on these low bonds that shouldn’t have been set. That’s just the reality. … We know who the bad guys are.”
Johnson said he is “begging” local judges and Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot to “be tougher” on criminals.
The same issue was raised by Chief Garcia at Dallas City Hall on December 11 during a meeting of the Public Safety Committee.
“Since I’ve gotten here, accountability continues to be an issue. We do not hold violent criminals accountable,” Garcia said. “This is not just a Dallas issue. This is a national issue.”
“But you’re saying judicially we’re not holding them accountable. You’re not saying DPD’s not holding them accountable,” replied Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12), chair of the Public Safety Committee.
“As a system, we are not. We want to be the part of the criminal justice system that doesn’t let our communities down. Unfortunately, there are decisions that are made beyond our control that allow individuals … out on the street,” Garcia clarified. “We cannot be the only part of the criminal justice system that is demanded to be transparent.”
As reported by The Dallas Express, District Attorney Creuzot has faced accusations of being soft on crime. Both Creuzot and the Dallas County bail system have been subject to extensive criticism for seemingly enabling violent criminals to commit further crimes by allowing them to bond out of jail.