Local businesses are saying that prostitution and illicit activity in northwestern Dallas is getting worse.
In October, the Dallas City Council updated an ordinance aimed at combating the growing prevalence of prostitution, as reported by The Dallas Express. However, locals said the problem has not gotten any better since the measure was put in place.
A few blocks north of Walnut Hill Lane and west of Harry Hines Boulevard, scantily clad women are often seen on the streets.
“When we have customers coming to our office, that’s not what you would want to see,” a local businessman purportedly told NBC 5 DFW. “I would venture to say if this was happening at city hall it would have been taken care of on the first day.”
NBC 5 reported that men in cars appeared to be monitoring the women on Monday.
“It’s human trafficking,” the businessman claimed. “Somebody is making money. It’s not the girls.”
In July, a Dallas County judge ruled that the City’s prostitution ordinance was unconstitutional, as reported by The Dallas Express. The measure allowed law enforcement to issue a citation if a “person is a known prostitute or panderer, repeatedly beckons to, stops or attempts to stop, or engages passers-by in conversation, or repeatedly stops or attempts to stop motor vehicle operators by hailing, waving of arms, or any other bodily gesture.”
Critics claimed the ordinance gave individual police officers too much flexibility to determine the intention of activities that would otherwise be legal. In the four months since the ordinance was ruled unconstitutional, illicit activity has only gotten worse, according to members of the business community who spoke with NBC 5.
“These women are dying. They’re being injured,” a businesswoman told the news outlet. “They’re being murdered.”
“And no one is paying attention,” she continued. “Meanwhile, our businesses are being destroyed by the loitering and the violence that’s associated with it.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, prostitution and related criminal activity has been largely concentrated in Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6, which comprises Dallas’ northwestern flank.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, there have been 593 prostitution-related criminal offenses logged by the Dallas Police Department this year as of November 27, marking a nearly 100% increase over the 300 offenses recorded during the same period in 2022.
Of the 593 offenses documented, some 534 were reported in Narvaez’s council district.
DPD currently has fewer than 3,200 officers in the field. A City analysis recommends a jurisdiction the size of Dallas should have roughly 4,000 sworn officers on staff to properly maintain public safety.
Downtown Dallas has been hard hit by the staffing situation, routinely logging higher crime rates than Fort Worth’s city center. The latter is reportedly patrolled by a special police unit and private security guards.