Violent Crime Is Down in Dallas. Now, Police Look to Build on Success

Even during these summer months when violent crime typically rises, Dallas has continued to reduce the number of victims with an overall violent crime reduction of 2.7% so far this year.

It comes on top of a reduction last year when Police Chief Eddie Garcia’s plan to combat violent crime was launched with a list of new tactics.

This week Mayor Eric Johnson praised the success.

“These numbers are incredible. For people who don’t understand, violent crime does not go down in major cities in the summer,” Johnson said.

Dallas efforts to build on success include two public events.

Garcia will hold a community listening session at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Dallas College Pleasant Grove Campus, 802 S. Buckner Boulevard from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

The meeting is to share information with residents and listen to their concerns.

“We’ll make sure that the community knows where we’re at in the city, where we’re at in their areas and what we can do better,” Garcia said.

A group called “The Village Project” will host a community meeting on Saturday, August 13 at 2 p.m. at 1709 Martin Luther Jr. King Blvd, Dallas.

An organizer of that effort is Mar Butler who worked as a violence interrupter in the Dallas CRED program.

“The village project is about ‘it takes a village.’ It takes all of us in order to take care of us,” Butler said.

As an ex-con, Butler worked to save people from a path of crime that he took with help like transportation to jobs or food the feed families.

“The sole purpose of violence interrupting is not to react but predict and prevent,” Butler said. “You have to be bold enough to service these needs in the actual neighborhood that needs the service.”

Violence interrupters are a big part of the formula that turned around the Volara Apartments at 3550 East Overton Road.  That was the number one violent crime hot spot in the city last year when Garcia’s crime plan was just getting started.

This summer, it is no longer on the police list of 50 target grids.

“That didn’t happen by accident. That happened by great community support of people that live in that neighborhood,” Garcia said.  

The grids are devised with input from criminal justice experts Garcia recruited from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

“That combines police experience with science,” Garcia said.

Building on success, Butler has moved on from the Dallas CRED program that was limited for two years to just four Dallas locations, including the Overton Road site.

With progress already achieved at those sites, Butler is working to serve more neighborhoods.

He passed out fliers Thursday for the Martin Luther King Boulevard event on Saturday to arrange much more of the kind of support he did on Overton Road.

“Anyone who has resources that can address the immediate needs of the people for free. That's what we're offering on this day right here,” Butler said.

Garcia said hard work by police making the best use of the resources they have also contributed to the improvement but police can’t do it alone.

“Police aren't simply responsible when crime rises and police aren't simply responsible when crime lowers. It is a collective effort and we need to continue that together,” Garcia said.

There is still much more work to do.

The murder rate was 13% higher at the end of July with 16 more murders than the same time last year.

Dallas police recruiting has fallen behind the goal of hiring 250 new officers this budget year, with just 151 hired at the end of July.  The number of officers leaving and is higher than the number hired, for the second year in a row so police manpower is shrinking, down to 3,079 officers at the end of July compared with 3,149 in 2020.

And police response time is slower for all categories of response compared with the same time last year.

Priority one calls were answered a minute slower at 8.93 minutes in July 2022 than the same month last year.  Priority two response was 70.79 minutes in July 2022 compared with 38.92 last year. Priority three and four calls were answered much slower than the year before.

But 911 calls were answered much faster in July, within 4 seconds 94.39% of the time.

And there were only two street racing takeover incidents in July compared with 29 in February. 

Dallas police have made a priority of street racing enforcement and 911 operator hiring.