City data shows that Dallas minorities have disproportionately been the victims of violent crime so far in 2024.
Of the 10,201 victims of violent crime reported in Dallas as of May 24, 8,431 were either Hispanic or black, according to demographic data from the City’s crime analytics dashboard.
The vast majority of black victims — numbering 4,589 — were assaulted, while 55 were murdered, and 35 were raped. While black males with a median age of 28 were most prevalent among the city’s black murder victims, black females with a median age of 26 represented 100% of black sexual assault victims.
Similar trends were seen amongst Hispanic crime victims in Dallas. As of May 24, assault offenses had impacted 3,662 of the 3,842 Hispanic crime victims logged this year. Of the 44 Hispanic rape victims, all were female, and they had a median age of 15.5 years old. Hispanic women and girls were also most frequently appearing as kidnapping victims, representing 26 of the 66 victims clocked over this period.
The demographic trends in violent crime do shift by Dallas City Council district.
Districts 4, 7, and 8 saw the most reports of black violent crime victims, whereas Districts 1, 2, and 6 logged the most reports of Hispanic crime victims as of May 24.
Over that same period, 502 minority crime victims were recorded in the southeastern council district of Council Member Jaime Resendez, The Dallas Express‘ Crime Boss for May. Meanwhile, just 44 victims were white.
The lion’s share of these victims were women or girls, with 194 of the 335 female victims being Hispanic — their ages ranging between 1 and 77 years old — and 116 being black — their ages ranging between 7 and 85 years old. They were most often the victims of assault.
The persistent trend of minorities appearing overwhelmingly in Dallas crime victim data has resulted in many stakeholders calling for more community-focused crime reduction initiatives, as covered extensively by The Dallas Express.
Nevertheless, one of the largest impediments to crime-fighting efforts is the significant officer shortfall within the Dallas Police Department. Even though a City report recommended that a force of roughly 4,000 officers serve a jurisdiction the size of Dallas, DPD fields only around 3,000.
Delayed police response times and persistently high reports of certain types of crime are just some of the consequences of this shortfall.
For instance, compared to Fort Worth’s city center, which has a specialized neighborhood police unit and private security teams, Downtown Dallas regularly sees higher levels of crime, especially assaults and motor vehicle theft.
DPD is operating with a lower budget than many other high-crime jurisdictions, such as New York City or Los Angeles. The Dallas City Council opted to allocate just $654 million to DPD this fiscal year.