Is Crime on the Rise in Dallas?
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You wonder, given that we are down the number of police available to chase down criminals or respond to emergencies. We are lacking about 600 officers in Dallas. As a general rule of thumb, a city needs about 3 officers per 1,000 people to keep peace and safety. Last year Dallas had 2.94 per 1000, and this year we have 2.5. How does that compare to Plano, Frisco and McKinney? Good question, I’ll dig. Our response times are also up, too. This in a city where police have been violently attacked for three consecutive years, beginning with the attack on the Jack Evans Police headquarters in 2015, and the downtown shootings of July 7, 2016.
And then, this weekend, someone was trying to, yet again, attack our police. There was targeted gunfire aimed at the South Central Substation. Nine rounds of gunfire were shot, likely from a high power rifle, and one narrowly missed an officer’s head.
Unfortunately, the station is missing the ballistic glass, fencing and other security measures police were promised more than a year ago… and after all these deadly attacks.
“When the police say to us, ‘We don’t feel supported,’ I don’t have a way to say you’re wrong,” Kingston told NBCDFW. “This City Council refuses to give voters the opportunity to decide whether to fix the infrastructure. So the police are suffering from the same thing we all are on the streets, except for them it endangers their lives.”
The $19 million was proposed more than a year ago to implement more security measures at all patrol divisions, including fencing and ballistic glass. Our new City Manager, T.C. Broadnax, said the beefed up security is coming up in September, but you have to wonder, what are they we police supposed to do in the interim?
“Our police officers put their lives on the line every day and in response to that need, we have been working on security enhancements to patrol stations and Jack Evans Police Headquarters. The City of Dallas has completed a full assessment to see where police stations are vulnerable and an architecture firm has provided recommendations for security enhancements. In addition to 2006 bond funds and federal grants, we intend to designate millions more in the 2017 bond package. These enhancements include upgrading to ballistic glass. We are currently completing testing for equipment that will be installed by September 2017 at patrol stations and March 2018 at Jack Evans Police Headquarters.”
