Dallas police received more than 10,000 service calls pertaining to abandoned property and street blockages since the beginning of the year.
According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard for police response times, the Dallas Police Department (DPD) logged 6,355 calls regarding abandoned property as of August August 11. Street blockages prompted another 3,879 calls during the same period.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, 44% of respondents to a City of Dallas satisfaction survey said the City does a “poor” job of maintaining clean streets, with only 25% approving of the job Dallas City Council is doing.
The Dallas Express reached out to DPD about the thousands of calls, but a spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. It is currently unclear what circumstances are driving the high volume of calls, however, some residents and local activist groups have identified the city’s homeless population and vagrants as the source of a lot of Dallas’ uncleanliness.
In a previous statement to The Dallas Express, Jake Colglazier, executive director of Keep Dallas Safe, claimed that the City government cannot effectively clean up the city without first managing homelessness and vagrancy.
“It is impossible to maintain any standard of cleanliness with vagrants sleeping on every corner,” he said. “It’s difficult and expensive to clean up a pile of trash when there is a person inside.”
Additionally, the vast number of calls about street blockages and abandoned property is putting pressure on DPD, which is currently suffering a severe staffing shortage of roughly 900 officers. According to a City analysis, a city of Dallas’ size should have around 4,000 officers on staff.
According to the City dashboard, DPD’s northeast and southeast divisions have been getting the most service calls. As such issues are designated “low-priority,” it takes Dallas police, on average, about 535 minutes — or nearly nine hours — to respond.
