Robberies have been ticking up this year, with pronounced spikes in several Dallas City Council districts.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, there have been 10 more incidents than last year as of March 26, marking a 2.1% increase over the 487 offenses clocked during the same period in 2023.
Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6 has had the most robberies, with 63 incidents recorded. However, Narvaez’s northwestern council district is not driving the increase.
District 11, represented by Council Member Jaynie Schultz and situated between Walnut Hill Lane and Campbell Road, saw a 53.6% hike, wracking up 43 robberies this year.
Council Member Chad West’s District 1, located just southwest of Downtown Dallas, also saw a significant increase in robberies, logging a 57.1% bump, with incidents jumping from 21 to 33.
District 12 in Far North Dallas, which Council Member Cara Mendelsohn represents, also clocked a significant increase in robberies, with City data indicating the council district saw a 45.5% spike.
A monthly crime study conducted by the Metroplex Civic & Business Association looking at Downtown Dallas and Fort Worth’s city center regularly finds substantially more criminal activity in the former than the latter. Fort Worth’s downtown area is regularly patrolled by a special police unit and private security guards.
The recent rise in robberies is playing out amid an officer shortage at the Dallas Police Department, which currently fields only around 3,000 officers despite a City report recommending approximately 4,000.
Additionally, the department was budgeted only $654 million this fiscal year, less taxpayer money than what other high-crime municipalities, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, spend on public safety.
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.