There has been virtually no year-over-year change in the number of criminal offenses logged by the City of Dallas this year, with nearly 88,000 crimes reported as of October 17.
According to the City of Dallas crime overview dashboard, 87,933 offenses were clocked. Last year, some 88,035 were recorded through the same period, marking just a 0.1% dip in overall reported criminal activity in 2023.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, a severe police shortage at the Dallas Police Department has dampened officers’ ability to get crime under control. The department maintains a force of fewer than 3,200 sworn personnel, roughly 800 less than the 4,000 recommended by a City analysis.
The four council districts with the highest number of logged offenses this year are currently Districts 2, 6, 7, and 14, which are represented by Council Members Jesse Moreno, Omar Narvaez, Adam Bazaldua, and Paul Ridley, respectively.
All four districts comprise or are adjacent to the city center, which has regularly seen significantly higher crime rates than Fort Worth’s downtown area. While both cities’ police departments have been struggling with officer shortages, Fort Worth has a specialized police unit monitoring its city center alongside private security guards.
District 6 had the highest number of crimes committed within its borders, clocking 10,299 offenses, followed by District 2 at 9,870. District 14 had 8,453 offenses, and District 7 had 7,829.
While DPD has made some gains in reducing violent crime overall, Dallas’ murder rate has been on the rise. Some 203 criminal homicides have been logged so far, a 12.2% increase over the 181 reported through the same period last year.
A request for comment was emailed to the offices of all four council members with the highest number of crimes this year, but not a single response was received 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.