Dallas police say violent crime rates around sexually oriented businesses have dropped in the four years since the city approved a 2 a.m. curfew.
Major Aarin Harrell, the commander of the Special Investigations Division, told the city's Public Safety Committee on Monday the decline was significant. The division investigates problem locations through complaints, intelligence, and inspections.
The division found a 96.7% drop in violent crime between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Those hours saw the most violent crime incidents in 2022 with 30 cases. In 2025, during the same hours, there was one.
While DPD and the city pushed for the curfew to address crime rates, some residents worried it would threaten jobs and be a "cultural harm".
The ordinance was followed by years of legal challenges, which included injunctions that prevented its enforcement for more than a year.
DPD officially began enforcing the ordinance at the end of November 2023 following an appellate ruling. The case was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2024, but the court declined to hear it.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled last summer the ordinance does not violate the First Amendment.
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn said she remembered the backlash from businesses before the ordinance was enacted. But, four years later, she said the data shows clear results.
"I just want to say thank you, thank you," Mendelsohn told DPD. "You guys pushed for it, we supported you through multiple lawsuits and look what's happened — you've helped make everybody safer."
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