DPD Chief & Dallas Mayor discuss violent crime and the changes they say need to be made
DALLAS - In an interview with CBS News Texas, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia and Mayor Eric Johnson pointed to police department records showing robberies, rapes, and aggravated assaults fell from a year earlier.
Chief Garcia said, "When we talk about where we are as a city, we're definitely moving in the right direction."
Mayor Johnson said, "This will be the third consecutive year of overall violent crime falling in the city of Dallas, which is incredible."
Statistics show that between January 1 and December 21 this year, robberies decreased by seven percent from 2022, rape dropped by eight percent, and aggravated assaults of non-family violence are down by 18 percent and aggravated assaults of family violence are down 12 percent.
But the number of murders has increased over the past two years.
So far this year, there have been 239 murders, a 14 percent increase from last year.
Last year, there were 214 murders in Dallas, 221 two years ago, and 256 in 2020. However, during the previous two years, there have been more murders. There have been 239 murders so far this year, which is 14% more than there were the previous year. In Dallas, there were 221 homicides two years prior, 256 in 2020, and 214 last year.
When asked how concerned he is about the number of murders this year surpassing 2020, Chief Garcia said, "I'll say this: what would concern me is if violent crime incidents were going up, which they're not; we've had the lowest amount of violent crime instances that we've had in five years. What would concern me would be if gun crime was going up. Right now, we have a 23 percent reduction in overall gun crime as it pertains to murder, robbery, and aggravated assault."
Mayor Johnson agreed. "If aggravated assaults are going down, which they are, but homicides ticked up, all that meant is statistically, a higher percentage of the aggravated assaults are falling, the long-term trend for that is going to be a decline in your murders."
One murder case earlier this month angered both the mayor and chief:
Byron Carrillo was accused of shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend, their one-year-old son, and two of her family members,"
Court records show that two weeks earlier, Carrillo, who was previously charged with assault, was released from custody with an ankle monitor.
Garcia said, "I didn't see any uproar anywhere. We had an uproar. We were texting each other, going nuts about it. We certainly had uproar. But where is the uproar where an individual, under all the circumstances not go over the story, going into all the circumstances put on an ankle monitor, living next door to the victim's who he's on an ankle monitor for and then murders them?"
Johnson said, "I don't want people committing crimes who are out on some form of supervision for a very violent offense where they should be in jail. So, that's what we need. We need the very dangerous criminals to be arrested and to be in jail, not roaming our streets. That's what we need."
It's an ongoing problem where violent criminals are released from jail within days or weeks, according to Garcia.
He doesn't blame Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot. "My frustration, as I'm sure you followed for the time I've been here, have been with irresponsible decisions made from the bench by some. Not all, that in the name of social justice, do not keep our community safe."
When asked if state law needs to change, the mayor and the chief have differing views.
Johnson said, "We don't need to be looking to Austin to figure out what goes on in a Dallas County courtroom, just the judges and the DA's, and we need to get that right, and we're not getting it right too often."
The Chief said, "I'm just simply saying, what would assist law enforcement agencies here in the state of Texas? I can say nationwide, but specifically here in the state of Texas, it would be for the ability of judges to be able to give no bail for certain crimes under what the crime is and taking the history of an individual into account."
Earlier this year, Governor Abbott signed a new law making it a crime for a defendant to remove an ankle monitor.
But Chief Garcia said it's not enough.
He pointed to statistics showing DPD's rate of solving crimes is far higher than the national average when it comes to violent crimes.
The FBI report for cities with more than one million people shows that last year, the national average rate of solving murders was 40.6 percent.
In Dallas last year, the rate of solving murders was 74.4 percent.
DPD reports that through December 19 of this year, that rate was 70 percent.
Garcia said Dallas' higher rates show residents trust the police department.
But when criminals are released back onto the streets, he said citizens lose trust in the system.
The mayor praised the chief, his officers, and the department's plan that's led to a reduction in violent crime overall.
For three years, DPD has been working with criminologists at UT San Antonio, and they've deployed what's called a hot spots policing strategy: dividing the city into tens of thousands of grids and focusing on the 50 to 65 grids with the most violent crime, then placing officers there and using intelligence to turn around those communities.
The chief credited his officers and his department for getting results. "I'm so proud of the men and women of this police department."
