District 10 Council Member Kathy Stewart has been named March’s Crime Boss of the Month for the significant year-over-year Crime Score increase her council district logged in February.
Stewart’s council district clocked a 21.5% year-over-year Crime Score spike last month, with upticks in simple assault, motor vehicle theft, vandalism, drug offenses, burglaries, robberies, and confidence scams driving the surge in crime.
District 10 is located in northeastern Dallas along I-635 and includes the Northwood Heights, Northlake Highlands, and Lake Highlands neighborhoods.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, simple assaults in the district ticked up 3.9% to 79 instances this February, instances of vandalism and property destruction jumped 15.2%, auto thefts leaped from 46 to 72 for a 56.5% surge, burglaries increased 12.1%, and drug offenses inched up by 4.2%.
Additionally, there were 10 robberies in District 10 last month, whereas it logged seven in February of 2023. Confidence scams in the district also increased, jumping by 33%, with eight incidents reported last month compared to the six logged in the previous year.
The Dallas Express reached out to Council Member Stewart for comment but did not hear back before publication.
As previously reported by DX, the Dallas Police Department has been hampered by an ongoing staffing shortage that has resulted in only around 3,000 officers being fielded despite a City report advising that approximately 4,000 officers are needed to properly police a jurisdiction of Dallas’ size.
Downtown Dallas has borne its share of crime, regularly outpacing Fort Worth’s downtown area in terms of criminal activity. A dedicated police unit and private security officers collaborate to patrol Fort Worth’s city center.
Budgeting only $654 million for DPD this fiscal year, the Dallas City Council opted to spend considerably less taxpayer money on public safety than other high-crime jurisdictions, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.
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.