The Dallas City Council voted on Wednesday to spend $1.4 million on a new police task force that will be dedicated to trying to reduce auto thefts.
As reported by The Dallas Express, Downtown Dallas has seen a substantial increase in motor vehicle thefts over the last couple of years. Council members have acknowledged the surge.
During Wednesday’s council meeting, Council Member Paul Ridley (District 14) said auto thefts have “been a concern not only in my district but, I believe, citywide.”
Roughly half of Downtown Dallas is situated within District 14, and the other half is located in Council Member Jesse Moreno’s District 2.
“If we look at the crime statistics every month, we see an upsurge in [motor vehicle thefts] that hopefully this task force will be able to reduce,” Moreno said.
The City Council authorized the launch of a special Dallas Police Department task force to focus on combating auto thefts. The task force will largely be paid for through a $1.15 million taxpayer-sponsored grant from the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority. An additional $297,929 from DPD’s budget will also be directed toward the new task force.
“I’m very pleased to support this item,” Ridley said at the meeting.
Many of the city’s auto thefts happen in Downtown Dallas, which logs significantly higher offense rates than Fort Worth’s downtown area. While both cities’ police departments have been struggling with officer shortages, Fort Worth has a specialized police unit monitoring its city center alongside private security guards.
The officer shortage at DPD has hampered the department’s crime-fighting efforts. The department maintains a force of fewer than 3,200 officers, even though a City analysis recommends a staffing level of around 4,000.
In addition to auto thefts, Downtown Dallas has also been seeing a lot of homelessness and vagrancy. A City survey found that 75% of Dallas residents believe homelessness and vagrancy continue to be “major” problems throughout the city.
While the City of Dallas has launched several homelessness response initiatives, it has yet to employ the “one-stop-shop” model used by Haven for Hope in San Antonio.
Haven for Hope offers a wide array of supportive services on the same campus where it provides the homeless with emergency housing, as previously covered by The Dallas Express. The approach has been credited with a 77% reduction in homelessness in San Antonio and polls favorably among Dallas residents.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson recently visited the Haven for Hope campus, but it remains to be seen whether the City of Dallas will consider such a model.