Drug crimes in Dallas appear to be on the rise, with some downtown-area neighborhoods seemingly driving the spike.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, drug offenses have increased this year by 4.7% as of March 24, bumping up from 2,343 to 2,454 reported incidents year over year.
Three Dallas City Council districts stand out in the City data, logging more than 300 offenses since the beginning of the year: Council Member Jesse Moreno’s District 2 (348), Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6 (355), and Council Member Adam Bazaldua’s District 7 (309).
District 7, which includes Deep Ellum, appears to be primarily responsible for the citywide uptick in drug crime, logging a 41.7% increase over the same period last year.
The recent rise in drug crimes unfolded against the backdrop of a longstanding officer shortage. The Dallas Police Department currently fields only around 3,000 police despite a City report advising that approximately 4,000 would be a more appropriate figure to reduce police response times and properly maintain public safety.
The department was budgeted only $654 million this fiscal year, considerably less than what other high-crime municipalities, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, allocated for their police departments.
A monthly comparative crime study conducted by the Metroplex Civic & Business Association that looks at Downtown Dallas and Fort Worth’s city center found that substantially more drug violations were documented in the former than the latter. Fort Worth’s downtown area is regularly patrolled by a special police unit and private security guards.
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.