Steep crime increases in District 7 have made Council Member Adam Bazaldua the first runner-up for the title of Crime Boss of the Month.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Council Member Chad West was named January Crime Boss for the 28.9% year-over-year increase in Crime Score clocked in District 1 last month. Coming in not far behind him, however, was Bazaldua’s District 7, which saw a Crime Score increase of 21.5% in December.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, there were significant hikes in motor vehicle thefts, burglaries, and drug violations in District 7, which includes the Fair Park area and the neighborhood around Buckner Terrace/Everglade Park. The district also neighbors Downtown Dallas, which regularly logs far more criminal activity than Fort Worth’s city center. A dedicated special police unit and private security guards patrol the latter.
There were 144 auto thefts reported in the district last month, marking a 28.6% spike over the 112 incidents logged in December 2022. Burglaries increased by 25%, jumping from 32 offenses to 40. Larcenies also increased (36.4%), with 45 incidents logged, as did car burglaries (62.5%), of which there were 51. Drug violations saw the biggest year-over-year increase last month, leaping from 53 offenses last December to 104, clocking an astonishing 96.2% spike.
A request for comment was sent to Council Member Bazaldua from The Dallas Express regarding the increases in crime in his district, but no reply was received before press time.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Dallas Police Department has struggled to get crime under control amid a significant shortage of officers. DPD currently only fields around 3,000 officers despite a City analysis recommending roughly 4,000 are needed to get police response times down.
Budgeting only $654 million for DPD this year, City officials will be spending much less than other high-crime jurisdictions, like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. In terms of crimes against persons, black and Hispanic individuals have been bearing the brunt of Dallas’ high crime rates, making up the overwhelming majority of murder, assault, and sexual assault victims.
In District 7, black and Hispanic people comprised 92.3% of all murder victims in 2023, as well as 90.8% of assault victims and 93.9% of sex assault victims, according to the City of Dallas victim demographics dashboard.
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.