Violent crime is down in Dallas, and here’s why
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A combination of policing and violence reduction strategies are at work.
After several years of rising violence in our streets, there is strong reason to believe Dallas is now on a safer path.
In fact, Dallas is bucking state and national trends. While homicides went down by 13% in Dallas in 2021 compared with 2020, we saw them rise in Austin by 86%, in San Antonio by 23%, and in Houston by 17%. That data is based on Preliminary Uniform Crime Reports compiled by each city police department for 2021, compared with final and published FBI Uniform Crime Reports for 2020.
Police Chief Eddie García and the men and women of the Dallas Police Department deserve significant credit for developing and executing the first phase of a violent crime reduction plan built on data and research.
It is also important to highlight and champion violence-reduction strategies in Dallas that go beyond traditional law enforcement. We are proud that Dallas has taken a layered, multifaceted approach to public safety that also emphasizes and invests in community-based solutions. And it is heartening to know that our decreases in violence have occurred at the same time we’ve seen meaningful decreases in arrests.
But now is not the time to declare that our mission is accomplished. It isn’t. When gun violence is present in a neighborhood, it becomes exponentially more difficult to create opportunities for people to thrive socially and economically. And violence still takes and forever alters more lives in our city than should be acceptable to any of us.
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- These fees cost renters, on average, $756 to $984 per year, further eroding housing affordability.
CPAL's Trust Her team gives contraception access to more women
Through the Trust Her initiative, CPAL works to dramatically increase access to free or low-cost contraception.
- 1.8 million Texas women of childbearing age cannot afford their preferred method of birth control. Without good insurance, an IUD–the most effective form of contraception–can cost up to $1,300.
- Women can often 7 months or more to obtain her method of choice. Appointments may not be available for many weeks and more waits can follow, depending on a clinic’s contraception inventory.
Housing in Dallas: A Framework for Action
This framework for action details the ways in which CPAL organizes its housing efforts across four dimensions.
- In 2017, 22,500 occupied housing units in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) were classified as severely inadequate.
- Between 2008 and 2018, the DFW MSA lost 237,600 low-rent units (units renting for under $800), representing a decline of 42%.