In honor of an impressive jump in Crime Score — a 24% increase when comparing February 2021 to February 2022 — The Dallas Express bestows the title of “Crime Boss of the Month” for March upon City Councilman Casey Thomas II, representative for Dallas City Council District 3.
The Dallas Express, The People’s Paper, believes that important information, such as crime rates and trends in the city, should be easily accessible to you. Many are unaware that 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.
As such, “Crime Boss of the Month” is a monthly title given by The Dallas Express to the Dallas City Council member whose district illustrates the greatest percentage increase (or smallest decrease) in crime.
This month, the title goes to Councilman Thomas for District 3’s Crime Score; the 24% increase in February 2022 as compared to February 2021 marks the largest jump of any we have discussed in an installment of Crime Boss thus far.
As the Dallas City Council Member for District 3, Thomas was elected to serve as Mayor Pro Tem in 2018. He serves as chair of the Housing and Homeless Solutions Committee, which intends to cut the homeless population in half in the next two years.
Thomas is vice-chair of the Mayor’s Workforce, Education, and Equity Committee and serves on the Public Safety Committee, where he led the council’s effort to establish the Community Police Oversight Board. Thomas was also appointed as co-chair of the REAL (Racial Equity And Leadership) Council for the National League of Cities.
Thomas is a native of Dallas, Texas, born and raised. He attended Dallas ISD schools and graduated from Skyline High School. He then received his Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resource Management from the University of North Texas in Denton.
Across the whole of Dallas, there were a total of 359 crimes reported for the month of February 2021. In 2022, that number rose to 435, for an increase of just over 22%.
A large contributor to that increase was Dallas City Council District 3.
Of the thirty crime categories accounted for in the Per Capita Crime Score for February 2022, District 3 saw an increase across ten categories, while the number of crimes in another eleven remained constant. Of the categories that did see a decrease in crime, none saw a decrease of more than nine reports.
The largest increase in crime for District 3 came in the category of Motor Vehicle Theft, a plague familiar to the City of Dallas. While most districts see an increase in this category when comparing the same month across two years, District 3 saw Motor Vehicle Theft jump from a total of 78 in February 2021 to 146 in 2022, an 87% increase.
The Dallas City Council NIBRS Weekly Admin Report from March 8 states District 3 had seen a total of 114 Motor Vehicle Thefts through the end of February in 2021, while that number had increased to 193 in the same period for 2022 — up by 79 instances. (Citywide, Motor Vehicle Theft in 2022 totaled 2,302 instances through the first two months of the year, compared to 1,795 in 2021.)
The Dallas Express reached out to the Dallas Police Department’s Auto Theft Unit for comments on the Motor Vehicle Theft increases, but the office had not responded to questions at the time of press.
Districts 3 also saw a double digit increase in instances of Larceny/Theft Offenses, from 83 in February 2021 up to 101 in 2022, a jump of 22%.
Other crime categories that saw an increase in District 3 were:
- Assault Offenses, up from 30 in February 2021 to 38 in February 2022.
- Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property, up from 38 to 42.
- Trespass Of Real Property, up from three to seven.
- Family Offenses, Nonviolent, up from four to seven.
- Arson, up from one to three.
- Fraud Offenses, up from one to three.
- Disorderly Conduct, up from one to two.
- Counterfeiting/Forgery, up from zero to one.
Meanwhile, the instances of Robbery, Human Trafficking, Kidnapping/Abduction, Extortion/Blackmail, Bribery, Peeping Toms, Embezzlement, Pornography/Obscene Material, Stolen Property, Gambling, and Liquor Law Violations remained constant across February of 2021 versus the same month in 2022.
The Dallas Express reached out to Councilman Thomas for comments on the crime increase in District 3, but his office had not responded to questions by the time of press.
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.