Drug-related offenses have shot up in Council Member Adam Bazaldua’s District 7, accounting for the bulk of a citywide increase year over year.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, there have been 202 drug crimes committed in District 7 this year as of February 26, marking a 35.6% increase over the 149 incidents recorded during the same period in 2023. Citywide, illegal drug activity ticked up year over year from 1,559 violations to 1,635, a bump of just under 5%.
As reported by The Dallas Express, the Dallas Police Department has been having a hard time getting crime under control due to a longstanding shortage of officers. The department currently only has about 3,000 officers despite a prior City analysis that asserted around 4,000 were necessary to reduce Dallas’ lengthy police response times and adequately maintain public safety.
The impact of the shortage has been felt in Downtown Dallas, which regularly clocks far more drug crime than Fort Worth’s downtown area. A dedicated neighborhood police unit and private security guards work together to patrol the latter.
Bazaldua’s district is located just east of Downtown Dallas and includes Fair Park and the Buckner Terrace/Everglade Park neighborhood.
While District 7 did not log the most drug crime in terms of raw numbers this year, it did see the greatest spike. Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6 had the most incidents at 251, followed by Council Member Jesse Moreno’s District 2 at 247.
Budgeting only $654 million for DPD this fiscal year, the Dallas City Council voted to spend far fewer taxpayer dollars on public safety than other high-crime cities, like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The City’s budget was adopted despite DPD’s staffing shortage.
A request for comment was emailed to Council Member Bazaldua, but no response was received before 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.