District 1 Council Member Chad West has been named The Dallas Express’ April Crime Boss of the Month for the criminal activity logged in his council district last month.
As previously reported by DX, West was named Crime Boss in both January and February, giving him three titles this year so far.
Based on City of Dallas crime statistics for the month of March, West’s Crime Score increased by 28.4% year over year, a little less than what was logged for December 2023 (28.9%) and January 2024 (30.7%).
District 1 is located just southwest of the Central Business District between I-30 and Illinois Avenue and includes neighborhoods east of Cockrell Hill and west of I-35.
Relatedly, the Central Business District has been clocking considerably more criminal activity than Fort Worth’s city center. A dedicated special police unit and private security guards patrol the latter.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, crime in District 1 jumped by 13.6% year over year in March, with 551 crimes logged compared to the 485 recorded in March 2023.
West’s Crime Score spike can be attributed to substantial increases in motor vehicle thefts, simple assaults, burglaries, instances of vandalism, and robberies.
Auto thefts increased by 66.7%, leaping from 72 incidents to 120. Simple assaults saw a bump of 47.5%, with 59 incidents in March 2023 and 87 last month. Burglaries ticked up by 11.5%, clocking 29 reports this year compared to 26 the previous. Vandalism skyrocketed, soaring from 34 offenses to 61. Robberies increased by 30.8%, ticking up to 17 incidents from 13 last year.
Other categories of crime also saw year-over-year increases; however, the numbers of incidents were relatively low, and the differentials were not as pronounced.
DX reached out to Council Member West for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
Despite crime rises within the city, the Dallas Police Department has been budgeted only $654 million this fiscal year. City officials landed on this allocation despite a longstanding officer shortage at the department, which only fields around 3,000 officers. A City analysis recommends roughly 4,000 are necessary to get police response times down and properly maintain public safety.
Other high-crime jurisdictions, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, chose to allocate much more taxpayer money to public safety this fiscal year.
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.