It has been more than a month since the City of Dallas first informed the public that an alleged cyberattack on its computer networks and servers disrupted a number of online functions across the City government.
As previously reported, the City alleged that the attack rendered its publicly available crime statistics unreliable after May 2.
While historical data allowed The Dallas Express to research and publish all but one installment of its Crime Boss series reporting on statistics from the month of April, there is currently no data that the Dallas Police Department (DPD) is able to stand by that can be used to determine May’s Crime Boss of the Month.
Kristin Lowman, DPD’s assistant director of media relations, has confirmed to The Dallas Express that the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard still cannot be relied upon for accurate crime data.
This marks more than five weeks since the alleged attack, during which time City Manager T.C. Broadnax and those under his supervision have failed to resolve the situation.
The Dallas Express asked the City for an update on the crime data situation last week, which yielded this reply:
“We greatly appreciate the public’s support and patience as we have continued to investigate and address the cybersecurity incident that occurred on May 3. Our staff has worked tirelessly to restore and rebuild systems and return all systems to full functionality as quickly and securely as possible.
“At this time, we are more than 90 percent restored, with most public-facing services restored. We continue working diligently to restore full functionality as quickly as possible and will continue to keep the community informed with relevant updates throughout this process.
“Please note that as we complete restoration, we will be upgrading software and functionality at the Dallas Public Library to better serve Library patrons.”
The City spokesperson who emailed this response did not mention the City’s crime statistics, nor did the spokesperson mention how the absence of such data is hindering DPD’s Violent Crime Reduction Plan, as DPD Chief Eddie Garcia noted to The Dallas Express in late May.
Last Friday, the City released its “Technology Accountability Report” on the incident, which devoted limited attention to the purported ransomware attack’s impact on DPD, despite the department’s own assertions that publicly available crime statistics are not to be relied upon and that the Violent Crime Reduction Plan cannot function as originally designed.
“The full impacts of the attack are still being assessed and will be provided in an After-Action Report (AAR) to be completed at a later date,” the report reads.
The impacts of the alleged attack have been felt elsewhere in the City’s criminal justice system as well, with municipal courts having closed from May 3 to May 30 due to the resulting system failures. The courts are still working to catch up following this break in operations.
While the City’s continued difficulty in restoring essential functions has rendered up-to-date crime data unretrievable, some trends seen before the blackout were alarming, including a 23% year-over-year increase in murders as of May 1.
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.
Curious to know how your area stacked up on crime? Normally, you could check out our interactive Crime Map to compare all Dallas City Council Districts, but as reliable data remain unavailable, this feature remains blank. Those interested in how we got our numbers previous to the ransomware hurdles can check out our methodology page here.