Over the last several months, The Dallas Express has tried to obtain crime data from the Dallas Police Department, but requests have lingered as the city fails to hand over this public information.
The Dallas Express requested the information to better understand crime in Dallas, which per capita, has a higher crime rate than Philadelphia and New York City, according to some sources.
The insight into the department bureaucracy began on July 5, The Dallas Express filed a Freedom of Information request stating that the department’s Crime Analytic Overview and the City’s Opendata portal do not match.
The Dallas Crime Analytics Overview shows the number of crimes by month in the city of Dallas. The Opendata portal lists the number of incidents by day in the city.
The information request asked three things: to advise which dataset is the correct count of crime in the City of Dallas by day/month/year, define incident and crime as used by the City of Dallas’s two databases, and access to the data file that the Dallas Crime Analytics Overview was built off of.
A day later, the city informed the paper that the request was redirected to the Dallas PD’s Open Records Unit, where the request is stalled.
The Dallas Express had followed up via email seven times asking for a response.
On August 4, The Dallas Express physically went to the DPD’s Record Unit, only to be told the request was “in the reaction queue to make sure there is not sensitive information that could be released.”
Additionally, the paper was informed there are roughly 4,000 open records requests with only a handful of officers to review. When asked for an estimated date the request would be fulfilled, the paper was told, “I don’t know,” by an officer.
A few days later, The Dallas Express received a semi-response stating, “It appears this request was forwarded to the wrong department. The Dallas Police Department Open Records Unit does not possess this information and had informed me to forward this request to the Office of Data Analytics and Business Intelligence.”
When The Dallas Express called the DPD Friday afternoon, the person answering the phone said they had never heard of the Office of Data Analytics and Business Intelligence.
Perhaps it’s time to oust the current Chief of Police and replace with one who WILL provide requests such as this one.
Chief Eddie is the best chief of police to come to Dallas in a long time. Don’t put the problems all on him!
I’m sorry, no he’s not, he’s horrible. The crime is way too high! They are not reporting crimes like they should be and he wastes resources unnecessarily. How’s that not questionable? On top of that, cops harass people in certain communities and treat them like crap and those communities are frustrated with him. Believe me, he’s not the best chief in a long nothing, he’s doing a horrible job as a chief.
Sounds like you’re just looking for a reason to complain. The department is short staffed almost every unit including personnel and open records. Wait in line and wait your turn just like everyone else has to wait.
No, fully staffed Dallas was doing this back in the days. I don’t think it’s a complaint, it’s just something crappy they’ve always done, which is why they created the oversight board. 🤔 That don’t seem to be helping either. Dallas is just letting a lot of residents down, almost like there’s no hope.
I had an accident in Dallas when my husband was still alive on 11/11/18. Never heard anything from the police after having to go to their department to get a police report. I had friends from church who showed me where to go to get the report. They had pictures of the car who left the scene. Never heard anything else from them. My 86 year old husband died the following year. I have since moved in with my daughter and her husband.
Make sure when comparing Cities that they collect data the same. Find out if the reporting systems and definitions are standard across the nation.
Every City has its own system and some cities can look like they have higher or lower crime based on how they define crimes and enter into data base.
Somebody’s yankin’ your chain. I about fell on the floor laughing when I read that there was no Office of Data Analytics and Business Intelligence. Somebody thought long and hard to come up with that one!!