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Dallas Residents Cite Concerns at Community Meetings

By Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter

Dallas, TX – Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter: The Walnut Hill Recreation Center public meeting drew about forty residents. Nearly half of them were volunteers with the police department's crime watch or community policing programs. They like the officers they work with, and said so. But it didn't take long for serious crime concerns, like gangs, to surface. Resident Judy Dixon said police seem to ignore the issue at neighborhood gatherings.

Judy Dixon, Dallas resident: Every meeting we have, they'll say gang activity is down. Well, it's not. They have the prison tags, all that junk. Don't tell us they're not there. Help us do something, instead of denying and changing figures.

Zeeble: Dixon and the other citizens mostly live in the northwest district, containing parts of Webb Chapel and Northwest Highway. Like a lot of the city, the region's mostly a mix of suburban homes with manicured lawns, strip-store retail development, and some apartments. Statistically, that's where more crime occurs. Teacher Lisa Smith says a lot of her students live in those apartments.

Lisa Smith, Dallas teacher: My kids wrote letters to police about what they had seen. No wonder they're not doing their homework.

Zeeble: Smith's house is also near some of those apartments.

Smith: I woke up every night and heard gun shots and I know where they came from. Every bullet goes up and it comes down. I know the people who live there are afraid. The good people at those apartments need to learn they have a voice.

Zeeble: Other residents complained about lazy officers lounging in squad cars instead of patrolling, and the desire to put more officers on the street. That's a top desire of Dallas City Councilman Mitchell Rasansky, who represents this northwest district.

Mitchell Rasansky, Dallas City Council Member, District 13: We all know we need more officers; we just don't have the money for it. If we had better control of spending downtown, we might have the money.

Zeeble: Rasansky also wants better communication and accountability on the force. He's confident new chief David Kunkle, whose first day on the job was yesterday, can help the department accomplish those goals. Rasansky also expects other recommendations from the half-million dollar efficiency report. An organization called Team Phillips is preparing it. Guyman Phillips - the organization's namesake - says he's talked to hundreds of Dallas police and held three other community meetings like the one at Walnut Hill. Nothing's final yet, but he likes several good citizen-proposals, like a required commitment from police rookies to stay on the force a while after graduation.

Guyman Phillips, Team Phillips Inc.: Officers can be trained in the Dallas training academy. New recruits can go through it, then leave before the city can recoup its investment. It's one of the obvious things we're looking at.

Zeeble: Phillips says that's just one possible idea in a report due by the end of the month, and which should contain a long list of recommendations in its hundreds and hundreds of pages. And the research continues. Phillips is conducting another community meeting tonight in the Samuell-Grand Recreation Center, one Wednesday in the Beckley-Saner Center, and more next week, which haven't yet been scheduled. For KERA 90.1, I'm Bill Zeeble.

 

Email Bill Zeeble about this story.