The International Data Corporation Government Insights group announced that the Dallas Police Department was named a winner in the fifth annual Smart Cities North America Awards despite an increase in overall crime and in murder to date.
The award recognizes the department’s creation of a violent crime reduction plan in the data-driven policing category. The department received the award at the Smart Cities Connect event, held April 4-7 in Columbus, Ohio.
“The Violent Crime Evidence-Based Reduction Plan is the result of work[ing] closely with criminologists, hearing from other departments within the City, and, most importantly, listening to our neighborhoods most impacted by violent crime,” said Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia.
Garcia was hired in 2021 and immediately set plans in motion to get violent crime in the city under control. In the three years before his hiring, violent crime in Dallas had increased by nearly 20%, according to data from the Dallas Police Department.
The Dallas Police Department Crime Analytics Dashboard provides some insight into the plan’s effectiveness. In 2020, the City of Dallas reported a total of 12,645 violent crimes. One year later, that number had dropped to 11,590, an 8.3% decline. Robbery (-28.6%), rape (-24.3%), and murder (-13%) all saw decreases as well. The most common violent crime in Dallas is aggravated assault, which saw a small drop of 0.5% over 2020 numbers.
Rather than address the issue of violent crime by hiring more police officers, Garcia helped craft a strategic plan that came to be known as the Violent Crime Reduction Plan.
The plan enumerates three phases to address short-term, mid-term, and long-term efforts toward reducing crime. It began by dividing the city into small grids and analyzing crime trends to identify regions where violent crime was most concentrated.
Once these areas were determined, the plan’s short-term strategies were employed. The methods in this stage include increasing police visibility in hot-spot areas and utilizing evidence-based policing efforts to target repeat offenders.
The mid-term efforts include using data, comprehensive reporting, and targeted investigations to disrupt criminal networks. This stage also features proposed community improvements such as graffiti removal, weed and brush cleanup, and removal of abandoned vehicles.
Research has suggested increasing green spaces and reducing dilapidated and vacant buildings may diminish criminal activity.
Finally, the plan details a long-term solution focusing on deterrence and “urban blight abatement.” These strategies aim to educate potential offenders, like individuals who become involved in gang activity, about the long-term consequences of their behavior.
“In Dallas, we have made public safety our top priority,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a press release announcing the award.
The violent crime reduction strategy is modeled after similar plans in Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities that have sought to address the increases in violent crime experienced nationally in recent years.
“Dallas is one of the few major cities in the U.S. seeing a drop in violent crime while others are seeing an increase,” said City Manager TC Broadnax in the press release. “The department’s Violent Crime Evidence-Based Reduction Plan is working, and municipalities across the country are paying attention and using DPD as a model for success. I couldn’t be prouder of the men and women in blue committed to making Dallas a safer city.”
At 16.94 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2021, however, Dallas’ homicide rate is 2.6 times greater than the national average and 2.2 times greater than the state average. So far this year, Dallas has experienced seven more murders than at the same time last year — a 10.6% increase.
Nonviolent crimes are far more common than violent crimes, accounting for nearly 80,000 of the 107,000 crimes reported in 2021. In particular, motor vehicle thefts (+28%) and thefts of car parts (+19%) have seen increases in both 2021 and this year. Reports of stolen property are also up 23% this year.
The Dallas Express highlights crime in the city with regular installments reporting on our monthly “Crime Boss.” Each month, we compare the crime statistics to those for the same month one year previous. The series highlights the Dallas City Council member whose district saw the most significant increase in crime for the month based on these numbers.
Though our reporters contact City leaders for comment weekly regarding year-over-year increases in crime, only two council members (Chad West and Casey Thomas) have replied to date.