Council Member Chad West of District 1 is 2024’s first Crime Boss of the Month due to the year-over-year increase in criminal activity his district saw in December.
The Crime Score for District 1 spiked by 28.9% last month as a result of steep increases in motor vehicle thefts, car burglaries, cases of intimidation, and thefts of motor vehicle parts.
District 1 is located southwest of Historic Downtown between I-30 and Illinois Avenue and includes neighborhoods east of Cockrell Hill and west of I-35.
West has received the title of Crime Boss based on his district’s crime stats five times previously.
Last month, motor vehicle thefts skyrocketed year over year in District 1, jumping from 55 incidents in December 2022 to 127. This marks a 130.9% increase. Car burglaries also soared, with authorities clocking a 47.2% hike. Reports of thefts from motor vehicles increased from 36 to 53. There was also an uptick in thefts of motor vehicle parts. City data indicates such reports bumped up by one incident.
A category of assault offense also saw an increase. There were only 15 reported incidents of intimidation in December 2022, but police logged 24 last month, marking a 60% spike.
The Dallas Express reached out to Council Member West for comment but did not receive a reply before press time.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Dallas Police Department has been struggling to get crime under control amid a longstanding shortage of officers. The department currently only fields around 3,000 officers despite a City analysis recommending roughly 4,000 are needed to get police response times down and properly maintain public safety.
The effects of the shortage have been apparent in Downtown Dallas, which regularly logs considerably more criminal activity than Fort Worth’s city center. A dedicated special police unit and private security guards patrol the latter.
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.