Dallas Mayor Releases Report from Task Force on Safe Communities

DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF) – Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson officially released a report from Task Force on Safe Communities’ on Thursday.

The Mayor called for the task force amid rising violent crime last year.

“The Mayor’s Task Force on Safe Communities’ report challenges us to do more to address the conditions that foster violent crime and to look at the issue holistically,” Mayor Johnson said. “By combining these recommendations with an ambitious, carefully crafted law enforcement crime plan, I believe we can, within the next five years, reach the record lows for violent crime we saw in 2013 and 2014 in this city, and that must be our goal.”

Johnson said the report provides four specific data-based recommendations to reduce violent crime using strategies outside of law enforcement.

• Remediate blighted buildings and abandoned lots in high-violence locations.
• Add outdoor lighting in locations where nighttime violence has been most severe.
• Utilize schools to deliver group support that teaches kids to pause before they act.
• Hire and train credible messengers from within high-violence neighborhoods as “violence interrupters” to keep resolvable conflicts from escalating into gun violence.

According to the City of Dallas, eight distinguished criminologists have endorsed the report.

“I am proud of the Task Force’s work,” said Mayor Johnson. “The thought and effort they put into producing this report is evident and commendable. I want to especially thank my co-chairs, Alan Cohen, Rene Martinez, and Pastor Michael Bowie, for their service.”

The Task Force members worked since August on the recommendations by conducting tours of high-crime areas, discussing ideas, and learning about programs in other cities.

“The Task Force met with committed community leaders, visited high-crime areas, and discovered best practices from various cities that have experienced a reduction in violent crimes,” said Rev. Bowie, Senior Pastor of St. Luke Community United Methodist Church. “We believe that this holistic and data-driven approach will give the City of Dallas and its communities the capacity to reduce violent crimes.”

The city’s Public Safety Committee will be presented with the Dallas Police Department’s crime reduction plan next week.

The full community task force report is available here.

Listen to Clayton Neville’s story below:

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