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DeSoto police report overall crime down in 2024 but hotspots persist along I‑35 corridor
Summary
Chief Joe Costa presented 2024 crime numbers showing an 8.4% decline from the prior year and a five-year decline of 3.6%, while identifying concentrations of theft and vehicle-related crime along the I‑35 corridor.
Chief Joe Costa, DeSoto’s police chief, told the town-hall audience that the department’s five-year comparison shows crime trending down and offered a ward-level view of hot spots.
"Crime went down last year, 8.4%. And over the five years, it went down 3.6%," Chief Costa said, citing 2024 totals of 1,650 reported crimes compared with 1,823 the year before. He described robberies, burglaries, drug offenses, larceny and motor-vehicle theft as among categories that declined in 2024.
Why it matters: aggregated crime trends and block-level heat maps help police and residents target enforcement and prevention. The department also publishes quarterly or monthly statistics to enrolled neighborhood-watch groups for local monitoring.
Costa and the department’s GIS analyst, Jerry Hicklin, showed heat maps that concentrated thefts and motor-vehicle crimes along the I‑35 corridor, particularly near hotel and retail clusters where vehicles are left unattended. "The hotels...they're perfect targets for criminals to come in, again, pull door handles," Costa said, explaining that offenders often check door handles for unlocked vehicles or look for valuables left in plain view.
The chief said motor-vehicle thefts have been a regional trend, though his presentation noted a decline for DeSoto in 2024. He highlighted that 2025 year-to-date figures (January–March) show crime continuing to trend down and provided a district-by-district comparison; District 4 showed a modest uptick in crimes for the first quarter.
Ending: Costa said the department will continue to deploy bait cars, targeted patrols, license-plate readers and data-driven assignments in hot-spot areas and thanked the GIS staff for enabling more precise mapping of incidents.
