One of The Dallas Express‘ most popular features is our monthly Crime Boss, which we launched in December 2021 to keep our readers informed about alarming crime trends impacting their local neighborhoods and Dallas as a whole.
Crime in Dallas is real and concerning. Many residents do not know that Dallas has more crime per capita than cities that regularly headline articles about crime such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York.
As “The People’s Paper,” we firmly believe that this type of reporting is essential for the betterment of our city and the lives of those who reside here. And based on how our readers have responded since we began this project, it is clear that this content is highly desired and was sorely lacking from the other news outlets across DFW.
Our Crime Boss readership numbers are not the only indicators of how important reducing crime is to Dallas residents. We recently polled residents to ask what they feel are the most important issues for Dallas City Council members to focus on.
As a surprise to possibly no one other than our city leaders, the top selection of Dallas residents was reducing crime. A staggering 65.63% of non-white respondents said reducing crime was their top issue, a trend we have seen across multiple polls.
For instance, in a previous poll conducted by The Dallas Express, we saw similar attitudes amongst black and Hispanic residents on how they felt their city council members were handling crime.
While our polling found that 69% of white residents felt their council members were doing enough to reduce crime, only 36% of non-white residents felt the same.
What does this disparity in perception suggest?
That Dallas’ city leaders are failing our black and Hispanic residents when it comes to crime. That certain communities in our city are being disproportionately affected by crime and need their leaders to step up.
They deserve better.
Across all demographics, well over half of respondents felt their council member was not doing enough to combat crime.
Despite numbers like these, we have, of course, faced criticism for our Crime Boss feature, much of it from those who have been misled into thinking the city council is not responsible for Dallas’ crime rates.
A recent comment on Nextdoor by a Northaven Park resident typifies the hollow criticism we have seen about arming the public with crucial information about crime in their communities.
Mistakenly believing that Dallas City Council members are in no way accountable for crime in our city, this resident said, “Is a Councilperson expected to patrol the streets? How is a Councilperson responsible for the number of crimes committed in their district?”
The Dallas Express does not believe our city council members should patrol the streets of their district. Nor do we believe they should personally put out fires or drive an ambulance to a crash scene.
But what we do believe — and evidently so do the residents of Dallas — is that our elected city leaders have a duty to promote public safety and protect the lives and property of those who live here. To some folks, this may seem novel, but we feel that this is an essential part of a well-functioning society.
The local resident also argued that others, such as the city manager, are responsible for crime levels while city council members are not. Whether he was being disingenuous, we do not know. Either way, we’ll lay it out for him: Chief of Police reports to Deputy City Manager; Deputy City Manager reports to City Manager; City Manager reports to City Council members; City Council members report to the citizens.
How can such a seemingly forthright accountability chain escape some critics?
Whereas our competitors may be satisfied with writing an article about citywide crime rates a few times a year, we feel strongly that a data-driven, regular feature that personalizes the issue of rising crime in our city to individual council districts is the most beneficial way to arm the public with the knowledge they need to demand change.
It is up to the people to do with this information what they will, and we pride ourselves on being their paper of record. We serve the people of this city, not its power structures. We are not popular with the powers-that-be in this city, but that is not our goal. We are serving the citizens of Dallas.
What is hardly ever reported, except for in The Dallas Express, is that crime disproportionately hurts our communities of color. This is largely ignored by our city leaders and other communities in the city that are not as victimized by crime.
Another issue that also needs to be addressed is the contributions to lawlessness and crime that have been made by our District Attorney, John Creuzot. He has followed in the footsteps of other district attorneys across the country who have approached some crimes permissively at the expense of people and property.
This reality is reported nowhere else.
Why do the other news outlets in this city constantly ignore the needs and desires of the black and Hispanic residents of this city, as expressed by them? We need to listen to the stated needs of our communities of color, not dictate to them.
Crime is the problem in Dallas, not people being held accountable for it. The Dallas Express is going to keep spotlighting crime in our city — and those who are responsible for getting it under control — to the benefit of all Dallas citizens, especially those whom it impacts the most.
