Council Member Paula Blackmon of District 9 has been named Crime Boss of the Month for the year-over-year spike in Crime Score her district saw in the month of August.
Blackmon received the distinction based on a downloadable dataset made available by the City of Dallas. According to the data, her Crime Score increased by 40%.
District 9 is located in northeastern Dallas between Interstate 635 and U.S. Highway 75.
While Blackmon far and away had the biggest Crime Score jump, other council members also saw significant increases. Council Member Zarin Gracey’s District 3 saw a 21.4% hike, and Council Member Kathy Stewart’s District 10 saw a 17.7% bump.
Blackmon’s Crime Score increase came about as a result of significant spikes in four crime categories in August.
Motor vehicle thefts in D9 more than doubled, skyrocketing from 47 reported incidents last year to 115, a 144.7% increase. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, auto thefts are rampant in the city, with Dallas’ downtown area being especially affected in recent years.
Drug offenses also saw a substantial increase, albeit a less dramatic one at 58.3%. Some 57 drug offenses were clocked last month, whereas only 36 were reported in August 2022.
Vandalism and destruction or damage of property also ticked up 10.9%, jumping from 46 incidents to 51. Additionally, robberies increased by roughly 33%, with 12 logged last month compared to the nine recorded last year.
The Dallas Police Department’s ability to respond to crime has been hampered in recent years by an ongoing shortage of police officers. A City report previously advised that a city the size of Dallas needs to have about 4,000 officers on staff. The department currently has fewer than 3,200 sworn officers.
Downtown Dallas has been especially affected by the police shortage, consistently logging much higher crime rates than Fort Worth’s downtown area. The latter is patrolled by a dedicated police unit and private security officers.
The Dallas Express reached out to Council Member Blackmon’s office for comment on the public safety situation in her district. However, no response was received by press time.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, a purported ransomware attack allegedly disrupted City crime data operations for months, making it impossible to determine where exactly crimes were being committed.
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.