Dallas Police’s crime reduction plan lowers violent crimes in South Central Division from 2,368 in 2020 to 1,496 in 2024.
DALLAS — With 30 years living in Oak Cliff, there isn’t much Isaac Steen and other residents haven’t seen.
“We’ve got all kinds of issues,” Steen said.
From crime to traffic, residents said their top priority is safety.
“We need the police to be in the community and not just show up when we call them,” said Steen.
That is why Dallas Police has been implementing their crime reduction plan. DPD Assistant Chief, Mark Villarreal, said in the South Central Division, they’ve identified eight hotspots with repeated crime activity such as Chesterfield Drive and Camp Wisdom.
“We have crime grids that we incorporate into our crime plan with high visibility grid locations and offender focused grid locations,” said Villarreal.
The plan also includes in-depth investigative approaches to incidents and working with ex-offenders.
“We try to get ahead of them. Give them some services they can have, so they don’t come out and re-offend,” said Villarreal.
So, is the crime reduction plan working in the South Central Division?
In 2020, the Division responded to 2,368 violent crimes. That has consistently dropped over the years to 1,496 in 2024.
DPD responded to 7,258 non-violent crimes in 2020. That also has gone down over the years to 5,874 in 2024. The Division also leads the city in gun seizures, so far this year.
With traffic concerns near Loop 12, in January, WFAA reported more than 1,000 citations and over 100 warnings since October.
DPD also told WFAA they are focusing on response times for Priority 2 and below calls.
“I get the frustration sometimes that I hear. That’s a lot of the quality-of-life stuff is what we hear at community meetings, so we’re trying to work to address that,” said Villarreal.
However, when it comes to the data there is what the numbers show and what people feel.
“We have been through several police chiefs in the last 10 years, and all of them have a promise or this big mandate that they going to do out here, but we don’t see it in the community,” said Steen. “I’m police friendly. We need the police.”
