Southwestern Dallas saw crime increase last month, with simple assaults, motor vehicle thefts, burglaries, and drug offenses all spiking year over year in Council Member Zarin Gracey’s District 3.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Gracey’s council district came in second for the highest year-over-year Crime Score increase in August, logging a 21.4% bump. Crime Boss of the Month Council Member Paula Blackmon (District 9) saw a 40% increase.
District 3 is situated in southwestern Dallas, south of I-30. It spans a stretch of city largely contained between I-35 to the east and Belt Line Road to the west, including the neighborhoods around Dallas Executive Airport and southern Oak Cliff.
Gracey is a relatively new arrival to the Dallas City Council, winning his seat in May after former Council Member Casey Thomas was termed out.
According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime overview dashboard, simple assaults increased in District 3 from 97 last August to 113 in August 2023, spiking by 16.5%. Motor vehicle thefts jumped from 65 to 95, marking a 46.2% hike. Drug offenses soared, increasing by 52.6%, with 38 reports logged in August 2022 and 58 recorded last month. Burglaries in the district also ticked upward from 26 to 32, a 23.1% increase.
The Dallas Police Department’s ability to deal with crime has been hamstrung in recent years by a serious staffing shortage. A City report previously advised that a city the size of Dallas needs to have about 4,000 officers on staff. DPD currently has fewer than 3,200 sworn personnel.
Downtown Dallas has been especially affected by the staffing situation, regularly logging much higher crime rates than Fort Worth’s downtown area. The latter is reportedly patrolled by a special police unit and private security guards.
A request for comment was sent to Council Member Gracey inquiring about the public safety situation in his district, but The Dallas Express did not receive a response by press time.
The Dallas Express, The People’s Paper, believes that important information about the city, such as crime rates and trends, should be easily accessible to you. Dallas has more crime per capita than hotspots like Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York, according to data from the FBI’s UCR database.
How did your area stack up on crime? Check out our interactive Crime Map to compare all Dallas City Council Districts. Curious how we got our numbers? Check out our methodology page here.
