Drug offenses keep ticking up within Dallas city limits, with two city council districts clocking more than 1,100 offenses so far this year.
According to the City of Dallas crime overview dashboard, some 8,383 offenses were recorded by the Dallas Police Department as of October 22, marking a 4.8% uptick year over year.
The two council districts with the most drug crimes this year are Council Member Jesse Moreno’s District 2 and Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6. The former saw 1,176 offenses committed, while the latter had 1,344 drug violations.
DPD’s ability to handle the city’s crime problem has been hamstrung in recent years by a serious staffing shortage. A report previously claimed a city the size of Dallas needs to have about 4,000 officers on staff. DPD currently has fewer than 3,200 sworn personnel.
Downtown Dallas has been especially affected by the staffing situation, regularly logging much higher crime rates than Fort Worth’s downtown area. The latter is reportedly patrolled by a special police unit and private security guards.
Roughly half of Downtown Dallas falls within Council Member Moreno’s district, while Council Member Narvaez’s district flanks the neighborhood to the northwest.
District 6 clocked a year-over-year bump of 4.6%, jumping from 1,285 offenses in the same period last year to 1,344 in 2023.
However, District 2 saw a much greater spike in drug crimes, logging a 17.4% increase. There were only 1,002 offenses recorded last year.
The Dallas Express sent out requests for comment to the two council members but did not receive a response by press time.
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.