As the election approaches, former Dallas district attorney and political candidate Faith Johnson has accused incumbent John Creuzot of being soft on crime, christening the current DA ‘Let-em-Go’ Creuzot.
Johnson’s pitch to the voters is the claim that under Creuzot’s leadership, “businesses & families have never been in greater danger,” according to campaign emails reviewed by The Dallas Express.
Specifically, Johnson targets Creuzot’s policy of refusing to prosecute people who steal less than $750 worth of items deemed to be necessary goods.
The district attorney’s office explained that the rule is that “The DA’s office will not prosecute theft of personal items less than $750 unless evidence shows that the alleged theft was for economic gain.”
Technically, the crime not enforced anymore is specifically Class B misdemeanor theft cases, which range from $100 to $750. Anything below $100 of property is considered class C and falls within the jurisdiction of the municipal court, not the district attorney.
Johnson suggests that “Creuzot’s reckless policy of not prosecuting thieves who steal under $750 has risen crime in Dallas County to unseen numbers.” Proceeding to allege, “Poor leadership and weak criminal justice reform have ushered in 4 long years of violent crime, robberies, and residents not feeling safe!”
According to available crime statistics, there is some merit in Johnson’s claim of an overall increase in crime since Creuzot took office in 2019.
In 2022, crimes against persons, property, and society have outpaced the number recorded in 2021, with 85,481 reported this year, according to the Dallas Police Department crime statistics dashboard.
Indeed, during Johnson’s tenure (2017-2018), property crimes were lower than they have been under Creuzot, according to information retrieved from the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer. Although violent crime has been trending down from its high in 2019, it is still noticeably higher than in prior years.
In his defense, Creuzot’s office maintains that his policies have not increased crime but rather reduced it, specifically those that he has ceased prosecuting.
In a press release published at the start of 2022, the DA’s office declared, “Creuzot’s policy regarding Class B Misdemeanor Thefts is working exactly as intended: cutting down on the prosecution of individuals who commit thefts out of necessity based on hunger and poverty.”
To support this claim, the office noted that from 2018 to 2021, the number of Class B misdemeanor thefts had fallen from 2,088 to 1,314. Going on to show that out of those cases reported to the DA, the office still prosecuted nearly every case despite the policy shift.
“The number of thefts reported is down, the number of cases accepted by the DA’s office remains high,” the memo concluded.
Concerns persist, that the numbers might not be entirely accurate and that fewer incidents are reported due to the belief that they will not be prosecuted. Data from Dallas PD shows that overall calls to the police have increased from last year, although the number of arrests has decreased.
Creuzot has also come under fire recently from the local left-leaning activist group, Dallas Justice Now, which claimed to The Dallas Express that “In Creuzot’s Dallas, black women are more likely to be victimized and less likely to get justice and closure.”
The district attorney’s decision not to seek the death penalty in the case of Billy Chemirmir, who has been convicted of two murders and suspected of having killed at least 22 elderly women, has also drawn criticism.
Similarly, Creuzot’s management of the bail system has led the families of victims to condemn the DA for releasing allegedly violent criminals back onto the street only for them to hurt others, according to a report by The Dallas Express.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Creuzot said, “I think we’re doing a good job.”
