Parts of City Councilmember Jaynie Schultz’s District 11 were hotbeds of criminal activity in December, with many of the reported violent crimes concentrated in certain areas.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Schultz became Crime Boss of the Month for the third time after her Crime Score for December 2022 jumped by 18.16% compared to the same month last year.
District 11 occupies one of the northernmost swaths of Dallas, encompassing much of the territory between Highway 75 and the Dallas North Tollway north of Walnut Hill Lane and south of Arapaho Road.
According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard, many of the December crimes in Schultz’s district were densely clustered along the Highway 75 corridor and the residential neighborhoods just northeast of the Galleria Mall. These areas have a high concentration of apartment complexes.
An analysis of the downloadable data set made available by City of Dallas Open Data conducted by The Dallas Express on January 9 found that 31.7% of reported crime in District 11 is committed at apartment complexes and in their respective parking lots.
Assaults, of which the City logged a total of 109 last month, mapped closely to the district’s crime hotspots, as did the murder of 44-year-old Kurt Jackson, which took place on December 17 at an apartment complex on the 10000 block of Steppington Drive, just west of Highway 75.
Police found Jackson around 11:30 p.m. with multiple gunshot wounds. He died at the scene.
Most of the district’s December robberies were also committed in Schultz’s crime zones.
The Dallas Police Department (DPD) told The Dallas Express about some of the unpublicized robbery incidents in District 11, which spiked by an alarming 133% compared to December 2021.
At approximately 3 p.m. on December 4, police responded to a call at the Sephora store in the Preston Royal Village shopping center. An unknown suspect had successfully stolen bottles of perfume a couple of hours earlier and assaulted an individual as they made their escape.
Two weeks later, on December 18, a woman was walking in the parking lot outside of Macy’s at the Galleria around 9:30 a.m. when a male suspect approached. He reportedly pointed a gun at her and demanded that she hand over her purse. The woman complied and was left unharmed.
Another woman was robbed at gunpoint later in the month, this time outside an apartment complex on the 14300 block of Noel Road. At around 9 p.m. on December 27, an unknown male suspect approached the woman and pointed a firearm at her, taking her bag before fleeing the scene.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Councilmember Schultz confirmed to The Dallas Express that she plans on running for re-election in May.
It remains to be seen whether her district’s crime problem will leave her vulnerable to a challenger willing to prioritize reducing crime in North Dallas.
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.