With less than a week left in the year, The Dallas Express will use this edition of its Crime Boss Series to reflect on the crime trends that ravaged Dallas in 2022.
Much has been made by other news outlets about a reduction in violent crime in Dallas, even as Chief Eddie Garcia of the Dallas Police Department (DPD) cautioned back in September against celebrating too early.
“We are not doing a touchdown dance. There is still work to be done,” stated Garcia.
Truer words could not have been spoken, as a significant drop in family violence crimes was met by an explosion in property crimes and virtually no change in street homicides, according to the most recent DPD CompStat Crime Briefing, NIBRS REPORT CompStat Daily V1 (4) updated through December 26.
As it stands, the briefing indicates that overall crime in Dallas is up by roughly 1.5% year-to-date compared to 2021, with a further 858 reported crimes.
Nearly 12% more motor vehicle thefts over last year and a 6.29% hike in burglaries of motor vehicles are gearing Dallas up to further climb the ranks of the most dangerous cities in the United States to own a car.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, police logged 10,734 auto thefts in 2020 and 11,938 in 2021. A glance at the City of Dallas Open Data crime dashboard shows that DPD clocked 13,174 motor vehicle thefts through the day after Christmas, another alarming year-over-year increase.
Other types of theft have also not budged much in 2022, even after months of backlash forced District Attorney John Creuzot to reverse his destructive, pro-crime policy of not prosecuting thefts under $750 in value.
Business robberies are up year-to-date over 2021 by almost 3%, according to DPD’s crime briefing.
Homicides, however, remain the biggest black eye for the city.
Despite DPD’s best efforts, 210 people have been murdered within Dallas city limits, an unacceptable figure that continues to weigh overwhelmingly on communities of color, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
Not included in that 210 are the 21 justifiable homicide incidents that occurred in the city year-to-date, which, while not a crime, further speaks to the danger facing residents and visitors on Dallas’ streets.
With less than a week to go before the end of the year, residents will have to ask themselves whether the city council is taking Dallas’ crime problem seriously.
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.