Dallas Police Chief David Brown
Murders continue to lead big dips in crime numbers — with one major exception — so far this year, Dallas police officials said Monday.
The Dallas Police Department tallied 86 murders through Sept. 30 — a 27 percent drop from the 118 murders on the same date last year. No other crime category shows as significant a drop this year in the department’s figures. The city finished last year with 143 murders.
Police Chief David Brown said during a briefing of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee that the murder rate is on pace to be the lowest in the city’s history.
Brown said the falling murder rate reflects “really, a substantial decrease in crime no matter how you want to look at it.”
Police officials also say burglary is down 23 percent. Robberies are reportedly down about 14 percent. Theft is down about 14 percent, too.
But aggravated assaults continue to be the anomaly. Police officials previously said they are studying why there has been a 6 percent uptick in that category. The increase is purely attributable to non-family violence assaults, according to the statistics.
The numbers haven’t been as up to date since the department switched over to a new records system. Officials have said the system doesn’t tally statistics as frequently.
The department has also begun reporting human trafficking numbers this year, but it’s only current through May and there is nothing to compare it to year over year. Officials count 22 offenses through the first five months of the year.
Here are the crime numbers, as reported to the City Council: