Three city council districts bucked against a citywide trend of declining burglary reports and put up double-digit increases for February.
Whereas most other council members logged modest declines in home and business burglaries, Council Members Carolyn King Arnold (District 4), Paula Blackmon (District 9), and Gay Donnell Willis (District 13) saw such crimes increase by significant margins.
According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard, District 9, the northeastern district that wraps around Garland Road and surrounding White Rock Lake, had the biggest year-over-year increase, logging a 29.6% bump in February.
Willis’ District 13, situated just south of Farmers Branch, experienced the second-biggest spike in reported burglaries in February (28%). As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Willis also saw a surge in shoplifting in her district that month, with reported incidents more than doubling year-over-year.
Arnold’s District 4 clocked the only other uptick in burglaries. Resting south of downtown, mostly hemmed in by I-35 and I-45 north of East Ledbetter Drive, District 4 sustained a 21.4% increase.
The Dallas Express reached out to the Dallas Police Department (DPD) and asked how the city’s residents and business owners could better guard themselves against burglars.
A public information officer advised that building security was crucial in burglary prevention, relaying a list of tips published by the City of Tampa. The list noted essential measures such as maintaining proper locking mechanisms for doors and windows and landscaping to increase public visibility to deter would-be burglars.
A request for comment was sent to the three council members’ offices, 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.
