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Dallas Arrests Drop, Crime Doesn’t

Dallas Arrests
Dallas police officers by unit | Image by NBC

Arrests by the Dallas Police Department (DPD) plummeted last year, even as the total number of crimes committed in Dallas remained practically unchanged compared to 2021 and a renewed wave of violent crime in the first weeks of 2023 has put the City on its heels.

“We’re not trying to do more than take down the violent crime — no dragnet type approach or stop-and-frisk approach,” admitted DPD Police Chief Eddie Garcia, speaking with The Dallas Morning News.

According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard, the dip in the number of criminal offenses reported in 2022 compared to 2021 was virtually insignificant — a mere 0.12%, with 107,849 crimes clocked in 2022, down 126 from the 107,975 logged the year before.

As previously reported in The Dallas Express, DPD has gone all-in on its “Violent Crime Reduction Plan,” which uses statistical data to pinpoint crime hotspots throughout the city to identify where law enforcement efforts should be concentrated.

While the City touted a meager decrease in violent crime, it also reportedly logged a staggering 19% drop in arrests in 2022, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Data acquired by the news outlet indicated a drop from 9,876 arrests in 2021 to 7,983 in 2022. No additional information was available as to which categories of crime saw the steepest decreases in arrests.

DPD’s crime statistics dashboard, however, does provide some year-to-date information: As of Wednesday, January 25, there had been a 3.26% decrease in arrests compared to the first 25 days of 2022.

The categories with the steepest decrease in arrests, according to this data, primarily comprise “crimes against society,” which include drug offenses, weapon law violations, prostitution, and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

It would appear that fewer criminals are being arrested, yet overall crime remains largely unchanged since the start of DPD’s Violent Crime Reduction Plan.

Violent crime, as defined by the Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines used by DPD and the FBI, represented roughly 10% of the reported offenses in 2022, and is trending up so far in 2023.

Last year’s property crimes, which accounted for about 61% of all reported offenses, rose by 2.6% year-over-year, exposing more Dallas residents to criminality and offsetting claims city officials might make that crime is under control.

And things are only looking worse a little more than three weeks into the new year.

As of Tuesday, according to DPD’s daily Compstat briefing NIBRS REPORT Compstat Daily V1 (2) (1), street robberies are up by 10%, aggravated assaults are up 11%, and murders spiked by 11%, all contributing to an overall increase of 5.47% in violent crime year-to-date over 2022.

Last month, The Dallas Express spoke with the executive director of Keep Dallas Safe, Jake Colglazier, who claimed to have some insight into the phenomenon.

“What we’ve been told by sources in DPD is that a lot of times the police, for certain offenses, don’t arrest for crimes they think won’t be prosecuted by the DA, so they don’t want to deal with the paperwork for no reason,” claimed Colglazier.

As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot has come under fire for his alleged “soft-on-crime” policies.

“Lots of residents we know don’t even call things in anymore,” claimed Colglazier. “It’s very dishonest of the mayor touting this huge accomplishment when crime is still high.”

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10 Comments

  1. Bret

    I wonder if no police paperwork is filed, then is it really a crime. ???????

    Reply
  2. Mary

    I can attest that the reason for the decrease in the category of crimes (gun law violation, prostitution etc) is because some areas (SED for instance) have been trained that DPD does NOT respond to these calls. Therefore, no one calls them in anymore. Do I feel safe in my neighborhood? Absolutely not

    Reply
  3. retta

    I think a lot of it is because the police are intimidated and afraid of being arrested themselves. Can’t hardly blame them. There is always someone that is going to protest and start demonstrations.

    Reply
  4. Darrin

    Jake Colglazier is right. Police are not arresting because the DA’s office is not prosecuting crime. Without punishment, there will be crime. Until the DA office changes, you will keep seeing a drop in arrests.

    Reply
    • Bill Fox

      That’s just untrue. Glad you are able to parrot Tucker Carlson.

      Reply
  5. Bill Fox

    Why report on the new numbers that show GOP held states have an overall higher average of crime than blue states.

    I know, you conspiracy theorists don’t trust anything and pretty much believe the earth is flat.

    Reply
    • Bill

      Lets look at cities not states Bill. Democratic cities Bill. Lets look at NYC, LA, Chicago, Baltimore and Portland. If you want add in Houston and Dallas. ALL democratic cities Nice spin and nice try.

      Reply
    • John Gault

      For example, can you cite any examples and sources to your claim? I’m interested in knowing how you arrived at this conclusion.

      Reply
  6. Bill

    If you live in an area of high crime or travel through those regularly you should purchase an equalizer (pistol). You need to take matters into your own hands. Its sad that this needs to happen but when you have Cowardly DA’s like Dallas has its all you can do. Its your life and your families well being. Don’t let the bad guys win.

    Reply
  7. John Q.

    If the number of arrests is fewer, but the amount of crime is the same, then wouldn’t that mean that taxpayers are getting a better deal? If there were fewer arrests and more crime, that would show that the police were slacking. But since the amount of crime is constant, yet arrests have declined, that means we’re getting a comparable amount of crime but paying for less police work.

    Reply

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