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Did Crime Really Decrease in Dallas?

Did Crime Really Decrease in Dallas?
City of Dallas | Image by Shutterstock

At the start of this month, the public crime data used in The Dallas Express Crime Boss feature initially created a false sense of security. Based on incomplete figures available at the time, it appeared as though crime had gone down drastically citywide, with some districts’ Crime Scores decreasing by as much as 60%.

However, as The Dallas Express reported, the districts’ Crime Scores were underrepresented by 54.6%, as the associated district for 6,257 of 11,593 crimes was initially not recorded.

When the correct data eventually became available, the city had actually seen a meager improvement in Crime Score when comparing July 2022 to July 2021: a 3.28% decrease.

The decrease in overall crime reports is even slimmer: 3.01%.

Despite that decrease, the city still saw an overall double-digit increase in four crime categories:

  • Nonviolent Family Offenses: up 11.
  • Animal Offenses: up 18.
  • Trespass of Real Property: up 20.
  • Stolen Property Offenses: up 20.

Meanwhile, the city saw 175 additional reports of Motor Vehicle Thefts in July 2022. Car thefts have been an increasingly prevalent issue in the city, which The Dallas Express has reported extensively.

While this slight decrease in the city’s overall Crime Score may seem cause for celebration (albeit lackluster), this figure may also foster a false sense of security. Though Dallas’ Crime Score may have decreased in July of this year compared to July last, July 2022, crime was still up from June.

A total of 8,543 crimes were reported in Dallas in June 2022. In July, that number rose to 8,896 – a 4.13% increase in crimes.

In June 2022, the city’s Crime Score was 305,345. In July, it was 314,320, 2.94% greater than the month before.

So, while crime fell slightly when comparing the same month across two years, it still rose from one month to the next.

The Dallas Express, The People’s Paper, believes that important information about the city, such as crime rates and trends, should be easily accessible to you. Dallas has more crime per capita than hotspots like Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York, according to data from the FBI’s UCR database.

August’s Crime Boss, District 1’s councilman Chad West, impressively managed an increase in Crime Score of 38.35% in a city where the overall Crime Score decreased.

West agreed to an interview with The Dallas Express earlier this month but has not responded to requests for comment since asking where we got our statistics.

Curious how we got our numbers? Check out our methodology page here.

It remains to be seen precisely how our city’s leaders plan to confront the crime problem in Dallas.

How did your area stack up on crime? Check out our interactive Crime Map to compare all Dallas City Council districts.

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5 Comments

  1. Stephen T

    This article does very little to better inform the populace of what is going on. Going forward, can you also provide 5 year and 10 year statistics? Or also provide comparisons to other similar large cities?

    Reply
  2. caseyp

    Oh, please. Crime go down in Dallas? It can’t with the huge influx of unlawful people who have crossed the border thanks to the Biden administration’s open border policy and the Dallas DA’s pathetic detention policies. It won’t go down until Democrats are voted out.

    Reply
    • Monte Mcdearmon

      WELL SAID

      Reply
    • Paulette Brody

      It has nothing to do with democrats or republicans…once people get this through their heads we can actually move forward in this country. Everyone wants to play the blame game…this country is the way it is because of everyone, not one set or group of people.

      If you actually look at the numbers – the actual research – and not just to what people want to spin on social media or other sites that give opinions and not facts then you would know that

      1. More immigrants are leaving this country than staying
      2. Most of the issues we have in this country are because of people born in this country
      3. Immigrants have actually made this country better and not worse
      4. This country was built on and with immigrants

      Therefore, if you have a problem with immigrants, you have a problem with the entire country. Because in actuality this country was full of different types of tribes (Native Americans) and immigrants are the ones that came and took over.

      So, if you and your family where not Native Americans then they too were immigrants. But, hey, maybe they are were some of the good ones.

      Reply
  3. DAn

    In the past year I had a vehicle stolen, was a victim of a property theft, and had my vehicle windshield shot out. I learned DPD is manipulating crime stats by simply refusing to take reports of certain crimes. While DPD took the stolen vehicle report, they refused to take the report of the theft of property (they told me I was going to have to find who stole the property and file a civil suit), and they simply never responded to the report of the bullet shattered windshield. Don’t kid yourself. Crime is up in Dallas. The problem is DPD officers are cooking the books to make stats seem otherwise.

    Reply

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