Dallas Police Win Award for Data-Driven Policing

The Dallas Police Department was named a winner in the International Data Corporation Government Insights’ fifth annual Smart Cities North America Awards.

The department was recognized for its violent crime evidence-based education plan, in the Data-Driven Policing category. Dallas police will be honored at Smart Cities Connect next month in Columbus, Ohio.

“Violent crime in Dallas had been increasing steadily, with a 14% increase from 2018 to 2019 and an additional 5% increase in 2020 compared to 2019,” the IDCGI said. “In May 2021, as this trend continued upward, DPD, partnering with University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) criminologists, renewed its efforts to reduce violent crime by developing a multi-faceted violence reduction strategy based on the best available science, creating a strategy based a hybrid of historic- and predictive-data modeling and integrated deterrence methods.”

“Hot spots” were assigned to get either more police presence or a greater focus on the small percentage of offenders causing the most crime.

“This is a remarkable success story for the City of Dallas and the hot spot strategy, which was purposely designed to avoid heavy-handed policing,” the organization said. “While violent crime was driven down by almost 50% (on average) in the targeted areas, it did not come at the cost of a significant increase in overall arrests.”

“The success of the Violent Crime Evidence-Based Reduction Plan is the direct result of the hard work of the men and women of the Dallas Police Department, working closely with criminologists, hearing from other departments within the City, and, most importantly, listening to our neighborhoods most impacted by violent crime,” Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said. “Our ultimate goal is the reduction of crime, with an increase in community trust.  We will strive for both, as these concepts are not mutually exclusive.  We will see further challenges in 2022 and our priority now is for our men and women to continue to partner with our community and strive to achieve an even safer Dallas.” 

“In Dallas, we have made public safety our top priority. As this award demonstrates, our focus on community-based solutions and data-driven crime reduction strategies has made us a national leader,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said. “I want to thank Chief Garcia, the men and women of the Dallas Police Department, and the Dallas City Council for buying into our ‘kitchen-sink approach to reducing violent crime. Together, we can continue to build safer communities for all of our residents.”

“Dallas is one of the few major cities in the U.S. seeing a drop in violent crime while others are seeing an increase,” said City Manager TC Broadnax. “The department’s Violent Crime Evidence-Based Reduction Plan is working and municipalities across the country are paying attention and using DPD as a model for success. I couldn’t be prouder of the men and women in blue committed to making Dallas a safer city.”