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On Tuesday, July 5, the city of Dallas announced a series of new public safety initiatives aimed at reducing violent crime. In a written memo to the City Manager and City Attorney, Mayor Eric Johnson said the initiatives are part of “a holistic approach to reducing violent crime in Dallas as we strive to become the safest major city in the United States.”

The new initiatives in this plan include:

• Pushing for better coordination between the Dallas police department and the Dallas Independent School District to expand counseling programs (in light of recent events, you would think their top priority would be ensuring that each school has an armed officer first).
• Giving a deadline for city departments to figure out how to solve violent crime without the police (because we don’t have enough officers and the city refuses to give them enough funds to recruit more).
• Investing in brighter streetlights (so we can see the crimes happen instead of stopping them). 

Let’s not forget the new initiative to fence up vacant lots for future development programs (because our city leaders care more about money than public safety), and the initiative to get city officials on board with taking down bars like the crime ridden OT Tavern in Greenville. Since shutting down OT Tavern was an easy political win for Councilman Paul Ridley, the political motives behind this initiative are painfully obvious. The man that really deserves credit for this bust is concerned resident Darren Dattalo, the local Crime Watch Coordinator for the Greenville Neighborhood Association. I spoke with Mr. Dattalo and he explained that he'd been trying to shut down the bar for years. "Bullets have come through peoples windows," he said, "We have had 4 shootouts this year." 

Here's the riddle: In a series of initiatives aimed at reducing violent crime, how will that goal be accomplished without anything that would increase or improve vital police services such as patrols? 

This new safety plan comes at a time when there have been 126 homicide victims this year in Dallas, 18 more victims than this same time last year. In a heartbreaking scene just earlier this month, two kids (no older than 3-years-old) were found abandoned in an apartment after both their mother and father were gunned down and murdered in the living room. More counselors in our schools, project/department negotiating deadlines, and brighter streetlights does nothing for these now-orphaned children, and future victims of Dallas’ violent crime incidents. This new “safety plan” is a bogus effort by city officials that does little to nothing to address Dallas’ spiraling crime rates! 

We need serious initiatives if we want to reduce violent crime. Our police force is devastatingly low, and we have long needed more sworn-in officers to protect our streets, but we will not get that until our city council allocates more funding to the police to make it happen. We should be promoting initiatives that advocate for more police patrols in crime ridden areas, not padding the pockets of our city departments who naively advance their non-police related solutions to homicide. Dallas needs to stop bringing clipboards and candy to these gunfights and equip our police force to safely and effectively enforce the law. 

We are not fooled by this new safety plan being rolled out by the city, it’s nothing more than a political red herring by people who want to keep their job without doing it. The people of Dallas elected these representatives who have a duty to their constituents to keep them safe. We must demand better from them; residents deserve to feel safe in their own homes. 

Call your city representative and tell them that these new initiatives don’t do nearly enough! Ask them what they plan on doing to ensure that Dallas has a strong and well-equipped police force, as it’s the biggest step in making sure that Dallas maintains public safety. Every resident of Dallas has a stake in holding their elected officials accountable — we must start speaking out to save our city from becoming another major urban crime hub!

Use the link below to find contact information on your city councilmember:

"It’s no secret that Dallas has a homelessness problem that is quickly getting out of hand. Every week, residents watch hopelessly as more and more encampments pop up in their neighborhoods, and throughout the city. Residents are forced to bear the burden; many are too scared to let their kids play outside alone anymore, and some have even had their homes and vehicles broken into and robbed." 

"Keep Dallas Safe has been diligently trying to find answers to the problem."

To read more, click the link below to view the full story: 

Each week, Keep Dallas Safe takes a trip around the city's districts to document encampments with the purpose of informing the city of their locations, and advocate for the enforcement of the laws protecting residents and businesses from the problems these illegal camps produce. 

We currently track more than 100 encampments around Dallas.

If you see an encampment in your area, please notify your district councilman with the date and camp location via email.

(Contacts are Linked Below)

Our Mission Statement:

Keep Dallas Safe exists to address crime and homelessness in Dallas with the goal of transforming Dallas into the safest large city in Texas for residents and businesses.

We aim to have a City Council that prioritizes crime rate which directly determines the quality of life in Dallas. We do this by fighting against the "defund the police" movement, holding accountable our city leaders' efforts towards lowering district crime rates, and highlighting our city's homelessness problems by pushing for enforcement of Penal Code 48.05.