Business and civic leaders convened at the Omni Dallas Hotel for the annual Downtown Dallas Inc. luncheon on Friday, where the subject of public safety seemed to ruffle some feathers.
Monty Bennett, Chairman & CEO of the Ashford Group of Companies and publisher of The Dallas Express, was scheduled to speak at the event and addressed the subject in his remarks, noting that he would prefer his business operated out of Downtown Dallas if it were not for the rampant crime.
“I do believe our city is in a transition period,” Bennett said, according to The Dallas Morning News. “I think the past few years have been tough. We have an opportunity … to take our place among the greatest cities in the country or the world. Or, at this inflection point, it could very well descend into what other American cities have become, unfortunately.”
His comments apparently upset former Dallas mayor Laura Miller.
“Just briefly spoke at the DDI mtg downtown Dallas. Afterwards I was scolded by a former mayor who said my comments about downtown being too dangerous were ‘inappropriate.’ What?” Bennett wrote on X. That former mayor was subsequently confirmed to be Tom Leppert.
City leaders have touted the modest gains of the Dallas Police Department’s Violent Crime Reduction Plan, which was first adopted in March 2021. Still, overall crime across the city only continued to rise, and murders increased by roughly 15% last year, as previously reported by DX.
The public safety situation in Downtown Dallas has been no different.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, there were 3,102 crimes committed in 2020 in DPD Sector 130, which comprises Historic Downtown and Victory Park. In 2021, 3,863 crimes were reported. The following year, 4,312 crimes were committed, and in 2023, officials logged another increase, with 4,698 crimes clocked.
As of March 1, 720 crimes have been reported this year, marking a year-over-year increase of 13.7%. Of those criminal acts, 109 were simple assaults, 18 were aggravated assaults, and 27 were intimidation incidents.
“I love Dallas. But the facts speak for themselves,” Bennett told DX. “Downtown crime is out of control because we refuse to properly resource our capable police department.”
As previously reported by DX, DPD only fields around 3,000 officers despite a City analysis advising that approximately 4,000 are needed to properly maintain public safety and bring down police response times, which have been alarmingly high.
Additionally, City officials only budgeted $654 million for the department this fiscal year, with the Dallas City Council voting to spend much less on law enforcement than lower per capita crime jurisdictions like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Clarification: This article was updated on March 9, 2023, at 5:45 p.m. to clarify that it was former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert who called Monty Bennett’s comments “inappropriate.”