For the first time, Councilman Jesse Moreno, the representative for Dallas’ District 2, has been named Crime Boss of the Month (CBOM) for November.
Moreno’s clinching of the CBOM title is based on crime data for October retrieved from the City of Dallas Open Data website on November 9, from which The Dallas Express logged a 12.66% increase in Moreno’s Crime Score over October 2021.
Before being elected to the city council in 2021, Jesse Moreno served more than seven years on the Dallas Park Board and ran a small chain of Mexican eateries in North Texas.
He currently sits on several council committees, including the Public Safety, Workforce, Education and Equity, Housing and Homelessness Solutions, Transportation and Infrastructure, and COVID-19 Recovery and Assistance ad hoc committees.
CBOM Moreno’s district clocked increases in 14 of the 30 categories of crime The Dallas Express tracks as part of its Crime Boss Series, which compares monthly crime statistics against the same month the previous year and weighs offenses differently based on their severity.
Three categories saw significant hikes in October, driving Moreno’s Crime Score into CBOM territory.
There were 34 more Motor Vehicle Thefts in District 2 than in October of last year, a 12.3% increase. Assaults increased by 32%, with 25 more than the previous year. Drug offenses, however, increased by a whopping 62.6%, with the City logging 42 more incidents.
Additionally, one homicide was reported in the district last month, whereas no homicides were reported in October of last year.
Upticks in the remaining crime categories for October can be seen in the table below:
| Crime Category | 2022 Reports | 2021 Reports | Increase |
| Larceny/Theft Offenses | 409 | 386 | 23 |
| Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property | 110 | 92 | 18 |
| Traffic Violation – Hazardous | 48 | 30 | 18 |
| Driving Under the Influence | 24 | 16 | 8 |
| Public Intoxication | 61 | 55 | 6 |
| Burglary/Breaking & Entering | 77 | 73 | 4 |
| Weapon Law Violations | 17 | 15 | 2 |
| Counterfeiting/Forgery | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Animal Offenses | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Arson | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Moreno’s rise to CBOM follows his coming in as a runner-up last month, when his district logged 1,214 crime incidents. That number spiked significantly in October, with 1,317 crimes committed, according to the downloadable data available on City of Dallas Open Data.
Further, while the data sets extracted by The Dallas Express from the City of Dallas Open Data’s website serve as the basis for Crime Score calculations, these statistics do not appear consistent with its online dashboard.
As of Wednesday, The Dallas Express identified a number of categories with significant deviations. According to the dashboard, there were 149 more reported assaults in October than were logged in the downloadable data set.
The dashboard also indicated 31 more drug offenses and 150 fewer reported motor vehicle thefts.
It is currently unclear what accounts for this discrepancy. The Dallas Express has reached out on multiple occasions to the Dallas Police Department and the point of contact for the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics but has yet to receive a response.
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.
