Two Dallas City Council districts are ahead of the pack when it comes to shoplifting offenses this year amid the Dallas Police Department’s ongoing officer shortage and a district attorney’s office that is allegedly making a low priority of property crimes.
There were 2,658 shoplifting incidents reported throughout the entirety of 2023 — a 56.5% increase over the 1,698 recorded the previous year.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, Council Member Gay Donnell Willis’ District 13 clocked the most shoplifting incidents so far this year at 70, as of March 5. Council Member Paula Blackmon’s District 9 logged 58 instances. Both districts are in northern Dallas and are hemmed in by I-635.
Notably, District 13 also saw the greatest number of shoplifting incidents throughout 2023, as The Dallas Express noted. This trend has seemingly prevailed into 2024.
The council district with the third-most shoplifting offenses this year is Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6 in northwestern Dallas, with 33 offenses recorded. Every other district has had fewer than 30 shoplifting incidents clocked.
Not helping matters is the Dallas Police Department’s significant staffing shortage. DPD has just 3,000 officers in the field despite a City report previously recommending 4,000. Moreover, DPD was budgeted just $654 million this fiscal year, which is far less than the spending levels seen for police in other high-crime jurisdictions, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
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.