Robbery, Car Theft Spikes in Southeast Dallas

City Council Member Adam Bazaldua of District 7 came in as the Crime Boss of the Month runner-up for his year-over-year Crime Score increase in April.

Bazaldua saw a 10.2% Crime Score bump based on the downloadable crime data set made available by the City. Though smaller than April Crime Boss Paula Blackmon’s 15.16% Crime Score, it was still a double-digit bump.

District 7 mostly sits south of Interstate 30, stretching across a chunk of southern Dallas (including Fair Park). Its eastern end terminates at the border between Dallas and Mesquite before Interstate 635.

One crime that skyrocketed last month was motor vehicle theft. The Dallas Police Department reported 147 such incidents in District 7 this year, compared to the 90 logged in April 2022, marking a 63.3% year-over-year spike, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard.

Drug offenses were also up 28.9% in District 7 that month, with 107 incidents recorded against last year’s 83.

Meanwhile, robbery cases in the area exploded. There were 34 incidents this year, more than double the 14 logged last April, with DPD registering an alarming increase of 142.8% year over year.

Additionally, four cases of rape were reported in District 7 in April, an uptick of two from last year, according to City data.

Bazaldua managed to eke out a straight win in this month’s city council elections, narrowly avoiding a runoff, despite District 7’s serious crime problem, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.

A request for comment was sent to Council Member Bazaldua’s office, but a reply was not received by press time.

The Dallas Express 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.

How did your area stack up on crime? Check out our interactive crime map to compare all Dallas City Council Districts. Curious how we got our numbers? Check out our methodology page here.