Dallas Police Ask Residents About Area Crime
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - More than 2,000 North Texas residents received a knock on the door this past weekend from officials with the Dallas Police Department. But nothing was wrong. Instead, the officers were asking for help from those who they serve and protect.
Juan Aguirre has lived in his north Dallas apartment for 12 years. In that time, crooks have tried to steal his truck thrice. "Two of the guys peeled off. The other started running," Aguirre said. Crime, he added, is now the talk of the neighborhood. "Prostitution girls walking around. Auto theft."
The Dallas Police Department is responding to some of those concerns by implementing a program called 10-70-20. The theory is that 10 percent of the people in the community are involved in the prevention of this crime. But 70 percent of people are not involved in crime prevention at all. The other 20 percent are those who are actually committing the crimes and terrorizing the neighborhood.
The idea behind the 10-70-20 program is to reach out to residents and ask them to become more involved in neighborhood crime prevention. "We're going door-to-door today and we're gathering information from the community, asking them about their needs, all the way down to their educational programs," said Levi Williams with the Dallas Police Department.
Police officials hit the streets of north Dallas and knocked on about 2,200 doors, giving each resident a brief survey with specific questions about bad behavior in the area and how police could do a better job. "What date, what place, what time – so that we can now deploy officers based upon a community frame of crime, instead of the officers' decisions," siad Williams.
Aguirre likes the new program, and hopes that it will really work. He wants the officers to take a proactive approach, and will now encourage residents to do the same. "It's very relevant to what's going on around here," Aguirre said. "It just helps out more, the people living here."
Police will soon collect the remaining surveys. They plan to meet with residents on a monthly basis, to talk about how everyone can work together to better fight crime in the neighborhood.
