Several categories of criminal activity are seeing a rise in Downtown Dallas, with assault offenses and thefts seeing significant spikes.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, simple assaults in the Dallas Police Department’s Sector 130 (which comprises the Central Business District and Victory Park neighborhoods) had jumped by 12.2% year over year as of August 27, increasing from 393 in 2023 to 441.
Aggravated assaults saw a similar increase, with DPD logging 92 incidents so far this year compared to the 83 clocked during the same period last year. This marks a 10.8% spike.
Instances of intimidation, which are categorized as an assault offense, soared, leaping from 82 incidents to 114 for a 39% increase.
Larcenies also spiked, with some 232 recorded this year compared to the 184 incidents in 2023. The increase was clocked at 24.7%.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, criminal activity in Downtown Dallas regularly outpaces that observed in Fort Worth’s city center. Monthly comparative crime analyses conducted by the Metroplex Civic & Business Association show significant disparities in crime categories like assault, drugs, auto theft, and vandalism.
Notably, Fort Worth patrols its downtown area with a specialized neighborhood police unit and private security guards.
Meanwhile, DPD has been hampered by a shortage of officers. Despite a report calling for a force of about 4,000, DPD fields only around 3,000, which has negatively impacted response times. The department’s budget of $654 million is also smaller than that of law enforcement agencies in other high-crime cities.
Downtown Dallas falls within two Dallas City Council districts: Council Member Jesse Moreno’s District 2 and Council Member Paul Ridley’s District 14.
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.