Road rage incidents in Dallas have led the Dallas Police Department to implement new measures to drive the number of cases down.
Dallas PD has announced that it will deploy a Strategic Targeting Against Road Rage unit sometime in October for the purpose of more effectively addressing the situation.
Road rage is “a motorist’s uncontrolled anger that is usually provoked by another motorist’s irritating act and is expressed in aggressive or violent behavior,” according to Merriam-Webster.
In addition to the new unit, Senior Corporal Brian Martinez explained to The Dallas Express, “Our Traffic Unit conducts weekly and monthly Road Rage Operations in an attempt to deter the aggressive driving that results in road rage incidents.”
“We look at the data to determine which areas of the city we will focus on and also which hours we should work,” Corporal Martinez told The Dallas Express. Police have also added more unmarked vehicles to their fleet to patrol for aggressive drivers.
The Dallas Police Department began to track road rage incidents last year and has responded to 664 road-rage incidents in 2022, compared to 667 during the same time period last year, Dallas police Executive Assistant Chief Albert Martinez told local news outlets.
Chief Martinez suggested that a majority of road rage reports involved either someone brandishing a gun or using one, although some drivers intentionally ram their cars into other vehicles in a display of anger.
“If you ask our citizens, our residents, ‘Have you been seeing more aggressive driving?’ I think every single one of us would say yes,” said Martinez.
Dallas PD recommends that “If you fall victim to Road Rage notify the authorities as soon as possible. The best action to take is to ignore the aggressive driver and never confront him or her. Aggressive driving can quickly escalate into Road Rage resulting in a dangerous or a life-threatening situation.”
Dallas is not the only area in Texas dealing with road rage incidents, and the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) recorded a total of 1,199 crashes in urban areas and 430 crashes in rural areas, in which road rage was a contributing factor during 2021. Eight of those crashes were fatal.
To address the issue across the DFW, the Texas Department of Safety, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, and the police departments of Irving, Mesquite, Grand Prairie, and Dallas joined together earlier this year to establish the North Texas Road Rage Task Force.
For more news stories on road rage incidents, visit The Dallas Express.