City Council District 9 saw a dozen robberies committed in August, and one of them occurred less than a quarter-mile away from the Dallas Police Department’s Northeast Division building.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Council Member Paula Blackmon (District 9) was named Crime Boss of the Month for the steep increase in her August Crime Score.
The increase comes as the Dallas Police Department struggles to protect the city with a force of fewer than 3,200 officers. The department’s staffing shortage is severe — a previous City analysis recommended that DPD have 4,000 officers on duty.
Downtown Dallas in particular has been affected by the City’s police shortage, consistently logging higher crime rates than Fort Worth’s downtown area. The latter is patrolled by a dedicated neighborhood police unit and private security guards.
Still, Blackmon’s northeastern District 9, hemmed in by Interstate 635 and U.S. Highway 75, recorded its fair share of crime. District 9 was hit by 12 robberies last month, the most brazen of which was seemingly the armed robbery of a 7-Eleven located at 10120 E Northwest Hwy.
“On August 26, 2023, at about 3:10 a.m., Dallas Police responded to a robbery call in the 10100 block of E. Northwest Highway. The preliminary investigation determined two unknown suspects entered the business and demanded property at gunpoint. There were no injuries reported. The investigation is ongoing,” said DPD Public Information Officer Michael Dennis.
Perhaps emboldened by a police force whose resources are spread excruciatingly thin, the robbery suspects carried out their crime barely a block away from a DPD facility. The department’s Northeast Division operates out of a building less than 1,500 feet away at 9915 Northwest Hwy.
Another 7-Eleven, this time at 11441 Shiloh Rd., was also robbed just a few days later, on August 30.
“The preliminary investigation determined a male suspect took property from the business without consent and assaulted a man during the offense. The man refused medical treatment,” Dennis said.
Citywide, there have been 1,661 robberies committed in Dallas since the beginning of the year, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime overview 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.