DDI says a larger police presence coincided with a sharp public-safety turnaround downtown. AT&T’s planned multi-year relocation to Plano shows why safer streets may be only the beginning of Dallas’ effort to keep its urban core competitive.
Downtown Dallas is safer.
Its biggest employer is still leaving.
That tension defined Downtown Dallas Inc.’s September 30 State of Downtown event, where DDI President and CEO Jennifer Scripps paired sharp public-safety gains with an acknowledgment that downtown’s largest employer is planning to relocate to Plano.
The company is AT&T.
In a January 5 City of Dallas statement, Mayor Eric Johnson said AT&T’s leadership preferred a large horizontal, suburban-style campus, while City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said the company wanted significant acreage for development. Tolbert said the transition would be gradual.
Scripps said the news “stung.”
But she argued that downtown is entering that transition from a stronger position after roughly 18 months of work on public safety and homelessness.
One of DDI’s clearest examples was policing.
Scripps said downtown now has 130 police officers assigned and approved, up from numbers in the 90s just a couple of years ago.
She also said crime had fallen by double digits for a second consecutive year, including a 16.5% decline in violent crime, a 29% decrease in robberies, and a 45% drop in auto theft.
Those figures mark a sharp reversal from an earlier period.
A Boston Consulting Group analysis commissioned by DDI found downtown violent crime increased 42% from 2019 to 2023 while declining 14% citywide during the same period.
No homicides had been reported in the central business district this year through the September 30 event, according to Scripps.
DDI presented those figures as evidence that increased police presence and its broader Safe in the City effort coincided with substantially improved public-safety conditions downtown.
The harder question is what comes next: If downtown is safer, what will it take to keep major employers, attract replacements, and persuade more people to live, work, and invest there?
That question sits at the center of DDI’s new 10-year vision for downtown Dallas.
More Police Downtown, Hundreds Still Missing Citywide
Downtown’s police gains come as Dallas remains hundreds of officers below the staffing level voters placed in the City Charter.
DPD told The Dallas Express in September that it employed 3,410 sworn officers, leaving the department 590 officers below 4,000, as DX reported September 28.
Dallas voters approved Proposition U in November 2024. The official Proposition U language from the Dallas City Secretary requires at least half of annual growth in unrestricted revenue to go first toward the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, with remaining money from that portion directed toward specified public-safety objectives, including increasing DPD staffing to at least 4,000 sworn officers.
The charter language does not specify a particular date by which Dallas must reach 4,000.
Dallas’ new budget nevertheless does not project reaching that number during the current fiscal year. The city expects roughly 3,651 sworn officers by the end of fiscal year 2027, still 349 short, as The Dallas Express reported following the September budget vote.
Downtown’s experience offers another data point in that staffing debate.
In January, the Dallas Police Department said its dedicated Central Business District patrol division averaged just two minutes for Priority 1 emergency calls in 2025, which the department described as its fastest response time.
DPD also said CBD officers arrested 90 fugitives wanted on felony warrants during the year.
“Downtown is benefiting from dedicated patrols and proactive work, while every neighborhood remains a priority,” Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said in the DPD update.
That creates another tension inside DDI’s success story: Downtown received more police and reported sharply lower crime.
But the September presentation did not explain how many of those additional downtown officers were newly hired, how many came from other assignments, or whether increasing downtown staffing affected coverage elsewhere in the city.
Safety Was Only Part of the Turnaround
Scripps did not credit police alone.
She pointed to homeless outreach, court involvement, DDI field teams, and private overnight security as part of the Safe in the City initiative.
Scripps said all downtown homeless encampments had been closed because of the focus on Street to Home and said downtown’s count of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness had fallen 85%.
There is evidence that at least some of that decline involved people moving into housing.
A May 21, 2026, Safe in the City coalition announcement reported that more than 287 people had moved into permanent housing through the Street to Home model, with retention above 90%.
The coalition also said downtown street-homelessness counts were down 89% from their peak, based on counts conducted by DDI field teams.
Those figures do not fully account for the 85% unsheltered-homelessness decline Scripps cited at the September event.
Her presentation did not provide a complete breakdown showing how many people represented in that decrease had been permanently housed, entered treatment, received other services, or moved elsewhere.
The same May 21 coalition announcement described a $28 million second phase of Street to Home across Dallas and Collin counties, funded by $20 million from the City of Dallas and Dallas County plus a private match.
AT&T Departure Tests the Next Phase
Even with those public-safety gains, DDI is confronting a major economic loss.
AT&T announced plans earlier this year for a gradual, multi-year relocation of its headquarters operations away from downtown Dallas.
The City of Dallas’ January statement said the company preferred a large horizontal, suburban-style campus and wanted significant acreage for future development.
Scripps did not name AT&T from the stage, referring instead to the departure of downtown’s biggest employer.
She said the decision was not a surprise after months of signals and speculation.
DDI’s response is a broader effort to make downtown less dependent on the traditional office model.
The new plan, developed with planning firm MIG, calls for converting more vacant offices into housing, encouraging residential construction, strengthening individual downtown districts, improving connections between neighborhoods and transit, and activating empty or underused street-level spaces.
MIG’s presentation described a shift from a traditional central business district toward a mixed-use downtown where housing, education, retail, hospitality, entertainment, and employment coexist.
The plan calls for a residential incentives program, streamlined permitting, additional office conversions, more ground-floor retail, and development on vacant or underused parking lots.
MIG’s lead planner said the long-term ambition is to roughly double downtown’s population and floated a range of 40,000 to 50,000 residents.
That range was presented at the event as an aspirational goal, not a city-adopted population target.
Billions Planned — But No Complete Price Tag
Scripps said approximately $8 billion in planned and committed investment is already inside the downtown loop.
But that figure combines projects at different stages.
She cited the convention-center redevelopment, Morgan Stanley’s regional hub, Texas Woman’s University’s planned downtown campus, Dallas College’s El Centro investment, the Dallas Wings’ planned move to Memorial Auditorium, and additional office-to-residential conversions.
Morgan Stanley’s signed lease at Fountain Place represents a concrete commitment. Scripps said the space would serve as the company’s temporary home while it develops its regional hub.
Therme’s proposed wellness resort is at a different stage. In an August company announcement, Therme said the Dallas City Plan Commission had approved its land-use request while the project continued through the public-approval process.
The convention-center redevelopment itself represents more than $3 billion in investment, according to Scripps.
She also pointed to Texas Woman’s University’s planned downtown expansion and the Dallas Wings’ planned move to Memorial Auditorium as examples of investment expected to reshape the urban core.
Completed housing conversions offer another measure of progress.
Scripps said more than 2.5 million square feet of office space had become more than 1,000 apartments since 2020.
The presentation did not separate completed projects from signed commitments, construction underway, and proposals still working through approvals.
Nor did DDI present a comprehensive price tag for its new 10-year vision.
MIG said implementation tools, resources, staffing, and partnerships were still being developed.
Scripps pointed to some money already available, including $15 million in bond funding for Harwood Street, but the presentation did not provide a project-by-project funding plan for the broader vision.
She ended by asking those in attendance to hold DDI accountable.
Can a Safer Downtown Become a Stronger Downtown?
DDI’s presentation offered measurable evidence that downtown Dallas has improved in an area that has long shaped perceptions of the urban core.
Scripps said police presence increased.
She said crime declined.
She said homeless encampments closed.
And she pointed to office buildings being converted into apartments and billions of dollars in planned and committed investment.
The historical comparison adds context to those claims: the BCG analysis documented a 42% increase in downtown violent crime between 2019 and 2023, before the more recent decline cited by Scripps.
But AT&T’s planned multi-year relocation demonstrates that improvements in public safety do not automatically translate into corporate retention.
That may be the central challenge facing downtown Dallas over the next decade.
DDI presented the public-safety numbers as evidence that concentrated resources coincided with changed conditions downtown.
DPD’s own downtown policing data adds another piece to that picture: a dedicated CBD patrol division, two-minute average Priority 1 response times, and targeted enforcement activity.
Those results also provide a real-world point of comparison as Dallas debates how quickly to build the 4,000-officer force voters approved under Proposition U.
The economic question is harder.
DDI now must show that safer streets can become the foundation for more residents, more businesses, more investment, and a downtown economy capable of absorbing the loss of its biggest employer.
Scripps’ message was that downtown has fixed enough of the basics to start thinking bigger.
AT&T’s gradual move away from downtown makes the stakes of that next step difficult to ignore.
Provided by Dallas Express
