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Dallas officials report drops in violent crime; serial robbery squad, outreach credited
Summary
Police told the Public Safety Committee violent crime was down year to date, with double-digit declines in several categories and a 50% drop in murders; detectives and community outreach are credited with the reductions.
Dallas Police Department officials told the Public Safety Committee the department’s violent crime reduction plan is producing measurable decreases in 2025 crime figures and outlined enforcement and outreach steps to sustain the trend.
Major Nathan Squires, joined by Deputy Chief Stephen Williams and Interim Chief Michael Igoe, presented updated figures showing violent crime was down 16.82% through February 2025 compared with the same period last year. Squires reported a 17.54% decrease in aggravated assaults and a 50% reduction in murders, a drop the department quantified as 18 fewer victims year to date and a 53.7% clearance rate for homicides so far—about 10 percentage points higher than the prior year.
Officials told the committee that the department attributes progress to several operational changes: the CAPERS division’s serial robbery squad, increased internal and external communications with businesses, and expanded grid-based enforcement. Squires said business robberies were down dramatically—business robberies in February numbered three—and that the department planned a robbery symposium on May 13 at the Lake Highlands Recreation Center to educate business owners and managers on prevention measures. “We will have our NPOs go out. We’ll create bulletins for public release… so they can have the pictures for the clerks there,” Squires said of communications to merchants.
The committee discussed expanding the department’s analytical look-back to show cumulative impacts since the violent crime plan’s start; council members asked for repeated presentations comparing current figures with historical baselines. Interim Chief Igoe credited patrol officers, CAPERS, community engagement and leadership for the decreases and said the work must continue: “We know the work never stops. It's got to continue,” he said.
Committee members praised the results and requested a future briefing that includes longer-term trends and cumulative impacts since the plan began.
