District 5 Crime Remains Among Lowest in Dallas as DPD Unveils Mid-Year Reduction Strategies

Dallas City Council District 5 doesn’t make a lot of headlines — good or bad. 

The area of Southeast Dallas represented by Pleasant Grove native Jaime Resendez, has the second-lowest crime rate of the 14 council districts. 

Residents in District 5 have expressed concerns about vehicle theft, vandalism, and car parts theft, compounded by complaints of low police response times — a widespread issue attributed in part to the department’s shortage of at least 500 patrol officers.

However, there’s not much variation over the already-low crime rate in D5. Property crimes in Southeast Dallas increased less than 1 percent over the past year. Stolen property offenses increased by 15 percent, and robberies have seen an 18 percent spike. 

So far this year, the area has reported just four murders, but 500 assaults and 153 drug violations have been recorded. Numbers change daily, but due to a recent ransomware attack on the City of Dallas, the most updated numbers recorded on the Dallas Police Department crime dashboard are from May 3.

District 5 crime decreases have been reported year-over-year in drug offenses (9 percent), theft (3 percent), and almost all categories of crimes against persons such as sex offenses, kidnapping, and homicide.

Resendez, a U.S. Army veteran, attorney, and former Dallas ISD trustee, was re-elected to his District 5 seat on May 6, garnering 53.6 percent of the vote over two challengers. 

About 63 percent of residents in Pleasant Grove are Hispanic and about 20 percent are Black, according to a November report in the Dallas Morning News. 

Resendez did not immediately reply to a request for an interview with CandysDirt.com.

Dallas Violent Crime Reduction Plan

Mid-year results from year two of Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia’s Violent Crime Reduction Plan, originally introduced in 2021, were recently reviewed during a May 8 meeting of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. 

View the presentation here. 

The Violent Crime Reduction Plan focuses on reducing murder, non-negligent manslaughter, robbery, and non-family-violence aggravated assault, said Michael R. Smith, representing the San Antonio-based Center for Applied Community and Policy Research. Primary strategies include hot-spots policing, place network investigations, and focused deterrence. 

The most efficacious crime-reduction strategy over the past six months is “high visibility plus,” where lighted patrol cars survey hotspot areas, and the officers get out and walk around for about 15 minutes. 

“They contact people, check businesses, check cars, do the things that police officers do, but out of their patrol cars,” Smith said. “We’ve recommended that DPD move to that for the high-visibility-treated grids. The experiment we put into effect is working.” 

In comparing crime across the city during a six-month treatment period from July 2022 to January 2023, murder remained flat, but a 33 percent crime reduction was reported in the treated areas or hotspots. 

Violent crime arrests are up significantly in offender-focused treatment areas, Smith said.

“That is by design,” he said. “Those are grids that are being treated with specialized teams that are focused on repeat violent offenders.”

Those with long histories of violent crime who have been released on mandatory supervision (probation or parole) will be subjected to an in-person conference with Dallas law enforcement, the district attorney, and state and federal authorities, Smith said. The first meeting, which 30 of “the highest high-risk” offenders in Dallas will be required to attend, is set for early June. 

“There’s been much planning over the last six to eight months to get focused deterrence up and running,” Smith said. “[The violent offenders] will get a very strong deterrence message that the violence they’ve been engaged in, in some cases for much of their lives, is no longer acceptable. They’re on the list, if you will. If they continue to commit violence, they will be subjected to prosecution, a specialized focus by the group.”

Behind that approach, an array of services, such as education, workforce training, job opportunities, and substance abuse counseling will be made available.

“These young men — and most of them are young men — are given an opportunity to change their lives,” Smith said.

Southeast Dallas Neighborhoods

Resendez has touted community empowerment, economic development, and creative public safety initiatives to reduce crime in District 5 and instill pride in the neighborhoods. 

Residents recently established the Southeast Dallas Neighborhood Coalition as a united voice for District 5, representing nine neighborhood associations. 

Resendez’s District 5 public safety initiatives include creative measures to reduce street racing and stunt driving, expansion of the RIGHT Care program to divert mental-health crisis calls from the police to mental-health experts, and the installation of LED street lights in areas with high rates of “nighttime violent crime.”

Those areas include Buckner Boulevard at Lake June Road, Bruton Road at Prairie Creek Road, and Great Trinity Forest at C.F. Hawn Freeway. 

Economic development projects underway in D5 include the acquisition of parkland at Masters Drive and Old Seagoville Road and an integrated community development project on St. Augustine Road near Elam Road for arts and technology, workforce housing, and childcare. Resendez also has advocated for the redevelopment of an old Carnival grocery store on Bruton Road at Buckner Boulevard. 

The average sale price of homes listed in District 5 is in the $200,000 to $300,000 range.