Thieves have been active in southeastern Dallas, an unfortunate reality that led to Council Member Jaime Resendez being named May Crime Boss of the Month.
As recently reported by The Dallas Express, Resendez’s District 5 logged a year-over-year Crime Score increase of 7.92% for April. Thanks largely to property crime, it was the only district to see a Crime Score spike.
There were 63 motor vehicle thefts logged in April 2024 — 16 more than in April 2023 for a 34% increase, according to data from the City’s crime analytics dashboard. Although the council districts in which Downtown Dallas is located (Districts 2 and 4) clocked the most auto thefts as of May 14 of this year, District 5 is trending upwards, with two consecutive months (March and April) of upticks in this crime category.
Similarly, reports of thieves breaking into vehicles rose 60% as of May 14, threatening to ruin a three-month trend of decline.
Another crime category to watch in District 5 is burglary, which has been outpacing the number of offenses logged in 2023 year to date, resulting in a 25.9% surge as of May 14. A closer look at data from the Dallas Police Department reveals that burglars have mostly been targeting retail businesses, offices, vacant houses, and storage units.
Larceny offenses also show no signs of slowing in District 5, with reports of items, such as a bicycle, surveillance cameras, and Amazon packages, being stolen from businesses and residents alike. There has been a year-over-year increase of 16.5% in such offenses so far in 2024.
Property crime remains stubbornly high throughout Dallas, with DPD struggling to keep response times low. The department’s resources are stretched thin due to a significant staffing shortage. Around 3,000 officers are currently being fielded, even though a City report recommends a force of approximately 4,000.
“The biggest correction to crime is having a police presence,” Louis Darrouzet, CEO of the Metroplex Civic & Business Association (MCBA), recently told DX. “It’s not even putting people in jail, just having enough people on the street, making people less likely to commit crime, and the City’s not doing that.”
MCBA produces monthly comparisons of crime reports in both Downtown Dallas and Fort Worth’s city center, the latter of which is patrolled by a specialized neighborhood police unit and private security guards. Each month, the discrepancy between the downtown areas of these two neighboring cities is staggeringly large.
“The City is doing a great job at creating all these spaces for people to go … they just need to back that up with a stronger police presence,” Darrouzet added.
It is unclear whether the $654 million budget provided to DPD this fiscal year by Dallas City leaders will be enough to address the officer shortage. This sum represents far less taxpayer money than the spending levels seen on police in other high-crime jurisdictions in the United States.
The Dallas Express, The People’s Paper, believes that important information about the City, such as crime rates and trends, should be easily accessible. 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.