DALLAS — Speaking publicly for the first time about the department's new 2020 crime plan, Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall said that the department is going to "put forth every effort to ensure that we reduce crime in this city."
The statements were made as part of a press conference about the shooting death of a 1-year-old boy early Sunday morning.
"Whoever pulled these triggers, we will find you. Rest assured, we will find you," Hall said.
In early December, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson sent a letter to City Manager T.C. Broadnax calling the increase in crime in 2019 “patently unacceptable.” The 2019 calendar year was Dallas' deadliest since 2005.
The mayor called the plan "a start" in a statement earlier this week, but added that the goal to reduce crime doesn't go far enough.
The city recorded more than 209 homicides in 2019, a 30% increase over 2018.
Other violent crimes rose as well. There was a 14% increase in robberies and a 19% increase in aggravated assaults, the statistics show.
When asked about the crime plan, which Hall sent to city officials and Johnson on New Year's Eve, Hall refuted criticism of the plan and instead asked the whole community to work together to fight crime.
"We are very confident in the crime plan that we rolled out. Everyone in this police department who has an enormous amount of experience was instrumental in rolling out that crime plan," she said. "We're confident in our abilities and we know what we put in place works. We're asking the community to allow us to execute the plan. There are criticisms, but the only people that can criticize the plan [are] the individuals who don’t see the results as we implement it."
The main objectives of the crime plan are:
- Identify “people, places and behaviors” connected with violent crime through data analysis
- Increase clearance rates by adding detectives
- Improve external communication by having clear crime statistics
- Optimize department resources, including adding civilian jobs
"We are going to put forth every effort to ensure that we reduce crime in this city. That is our goal, that is our mission and that is what we are determined to do," Hall said Sunday.
Hall asked city officials and the community to focus on working together to curb violent crime in Dallas.
"We can critique later. Let's execute the plan. Let's reduce crime in the city of Dallas," she said. "That's what we're about in 2020. We’ve always been about it, but we are aggressive and deliberate today."