Dallas city leaders call for more openness in the criminal justice system about who is to blame for jail releases that put violent criminals back on the street. An expert study for the Dallas Police Chief shows more than half of those released were arrested again.
Dallas City Council Members requested more answers Monday after a study commissioned for Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia showed more than half the people released on bond for violent crimes were arrested again, some within weeks.
“That hurts the trust that our community has in the system. It certainly doesn’t make the job that our men and women do any easier,” Garcia said.
Chief Garcia asked for the study conducted by criminal justice experts from the University of Texas at San Antonio after several recent Dallas incidents involving people released by the criminal justice system who committed violent crimes again.
The study of 464 bail or bond pre-trial releases in 2021 found 260 or 56% were re-arrested. Of those, 109, or 34%, were charged with murder.
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“Violent crime is down in the city, but we need all parts of the criminal justice system to work with us,” Garcia said.
Members of the Dallas City Council Public Safety Committee said the figures document what police have been saying.
“I think it’s shocking and I don't like that our officers are put out there to get the most dangerous violent people and have to do it again and again and again,” Council Member Cara Mendelsohn said.
At the same time, prosecutors are limited by the decisions of judges. Dallas County officials are also under pressure to reduce the jail population.
Council Members heard details of a defection center program to help individuals with mental illness who might otherwise wind up at the jail, where police spend much longer booking people in.
CITY OF DALLAS
The diversion program at the Homeward Bound treatment center in Southern Dallas was funded in part with $1 million from Dallas County.
“They're also constrained. There's been a lawsuit. You have these parameters on which you make these decisions,” City Council Member Gay Donnell Willis said.
Despite the county’s efforts, Council Members wanted better answers about which judges might be responsible for the largest number of releases that resulted in re-arrests.
The experts said existing computer data and public records make it impossible to track an individual through the entire system seamlessly.
“This is all public data. None of it is linked. And none of it is accessible to the public in any real way,” Mike Smith, UTSA Criminal Justice Professor, said.
The Public Safety Committee Chairman is Adam McGough, an attorney himself who was once a city prosecutor.
He said Monday’s report was better data than the committee had been able to get before.
“We have the parts on the city side that highlight we’re doing our part. And so it highlights the parts that aren’t coming alongside,” McGough said.
Garcia said other parts of the system should be required to report information on their performance as police are required to do.
“We can’t be the only ones in Dallas or this country where transparency is demanded,” Garcia said.
Council members called for state law changes if necessary to improve the rest of the system.
