DALLAS — Police say violent crime numbers, overall, are on a downward trend in the City of Dallas. However, statistics shared with members of Dallas City Council show murders and robberies of businesses are up.
Updated crime data was shared with city council during its public safety committee meeting on Monday. The meeting came after a weekend involving several cases of gun violence across the city.
“It’s just really concerning,” said Silver Oaoie.
She and her friends work in the Deep Ellum area. They were concerned about a shooting that left two people injured in the 2800 block of Elm Street on Sunday.
Police released surveillance video of the shooting chaos. In it, dozens of people are seen running for cover as bullets are fired.
"If a careless person fires at an event, how can we stop that?" said Dallas City Councilman Adam McGough.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said officers were just feet away from where the shooting happened.
"We have individuals who have no regard for human life. Really, I don't know how much more to say about that when you had individuals doing that in a crowded area," said Garcia.
“It sucks that it’s happening,” said Faith, another woman who works in Deep Ellum.
Local police continue investigating several weekend homicides. Among them, two people were shot and one man killed outside a house on Jerome Street in East Dallas on Sunday.
Across town in Oak Cliff, a man was left on the ground with fatal gun wounds, outside of an apartment complex on South Polk.
“One of the topics we’re going to cover are issues, lessons learned,” Garcia told city council members during the presentation.
Dallas officers detailed the status of some ongoing investigations. They also discussed working with the city attorney’s office to draft ordinances that would require party and event promoters to secure permits for large events.
Dallas PD says while it was a violent weekend, violent crime is down overall by 13%.
Police said data shows there are 59 murders, so far this year. That’s six more cases than the same time last year. While robberies of individuals have dropped by nearly 100 incidents, business robberies have increased and remain an area of concern for officers.
Also, police said data shows aggravated assaults, both family and non-family violence, dropped nearly 200 incidents.
"Aggravated assaults are the shooting category. If we can reduce crime here, we have a safer city," said First Assistant Chief Lonzo Anderson.
The department said know there are concerns from people in southern Dallas, because that's where the two mass shootings recently occurred. As a result, Dallas PD released numbers from the southern Dallas divisions. They show gun violence is down 12% in South Central, 13% in Southeast and 5% in Southwest.
The department said overall violence is down in all three southern Dallas divisions. In South Central, it's down 9%, it's down 13% in Southeast and 18% in Southwest.
"I would say to the public -- keep your eye on the ball on the crime plan that works, so working with business and clergy as well. We can't do this alone," said Garcia.
Garcia said it's easy to focus on the high profile incidents, but the department has been successful in dropping violent crime.
"We know we deal with perceptions and realities in law enforcement. We come off a strong year for the men and women of this department and the numbers are dropping but as I have said, there are going to be challenging days particularly as months get hotter.
Among issues, Dallas City Council members urged police to address is staffing challenges. Some city leaders said the problem has resulted in a reduction of neighborhood patrol officers in some areas.
“I think we’ve got to build trust. You’ve got to build trust with the community,” Councilman Tennell Atkins told police.