While some days remain before January closes out, City of Dallas crime data indicates that black and Hispanic individuals are once again on track to comprise the overwhelming majority of assault victims in the jurisdiction for the month.
According to the City’s crime victim demographics dashboard, 47.6% of Dallas’ running count of 1,466 assault victims as of January 26 have been black, and 34% have been Hispanic or Latino.
Of the black assault victims logged by the City, 446 or 63.9% were female, with a median age of 32 years old. Several victims were infants or toddlers. When it comes to Hispanic or Latino assault victims, 294 or 59% were recorded as female, with a median age of 30. Two victims were less than a year old.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, black and Hispanic people made up the vast majority of assault victims in 2023 as the Dallas Police Department continued to struggle to keep communities safe amid its longstanding staffing crunch. Only around 3,000 officers are currently being fielded by DPD, even though a City analysis advises that a jurisdiction the size of Dallas should have roughly 4,000 on staff to properly ensure public safety and keep police response times down.
Budgeting only $654 million for the department this year, the Dallas City Council voted to spend much less taxpayer money on law enforcement than other high-crime jurisdictions, like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
In a previous interview with The Dallas Express, anti-violence activist Antong Lucky, president of the nonprofit Urban Specialists, argued that despite national narratives that dwell on police misconduct against people of color, Dallas minority communities actually want officers to get crime under control.
“[W]e want to feel safe in our communities. We don’t want to be profiled. We don’t want to be harassed, but we want police,” Lucky said.
