While violent crimes have been trending downward in some parts of Dallas, robberies really ramped up in Council Member Adam Bazaldua’s District 7 last month.
District 7 primarily rests south of Interstate 30, stretching across parts of southern Dallas (including Fair Park), with its western border stopping short of Interstate 635 to the east.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Bazaldua was named runner-up for the Crime Boss of the Month title because of his double-digit Crime Score increase in April, which was in no small part caused by a sharp increase in robberies.
Incidents reported to the Dallas Police Department (DPD) more than doubled year over year, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard.
The Dallas Express reached out to DPD and asked about some of the robberies reported in Bazaldua’s council district last month.
Public Information Officer Michael Dennis informed The Dallas Express about an incident where a woman was robbed in an apartment parking lot.
“On April 3, at about 10:30 p.m., Dallas Police responded to a robbery call in the 1600 block of John West Road. The preliminary investigation determined a woman was assaulted and [robbed] at gunpoint by multiple suspects at the location,” said Dennis in an email.
The woman was punched during the encounter, according to the report.
In another incident a few weeks later, an unidentified male suspect robbed a 7-Eleven convenience store.
“On April 23, 2023, at about 4:50 p.m., Dallas Police responded to a robbery call in the 8200 block of ERL Thornton Service Road. … The preliminary investigation determined a male suspect entered the business and took a cash register box, without consent, as he swung a machete at the caller. There were no injuries reported,” Dennis relayed to The Dallas Express.
Four days later, another business in Bazaldua’s district was robbed, this time a Family Dollar store.
“Dallas Police responded to a business robbery in the 3300 block of Elsie Faye Heggins Street. The preliminary investigation determined an unknown suspect pointed a weapon at the victim and demanded money,” wrote Dennis.
No suspect was identified in any of the three cases.
A request for comment regarding last month’s spike in robberies was sent to Council Member Bazaldua’s office, but no 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.