Ere Johnson December 3, 2018 7.¢. Broadnax City Manager ity of Dallas 11500 Marla Street, 42N Dallas, Texas 75201 VIA HAND DELIVERY Dear Mr. Broadnax: | have exercised patience with respect to our city's crime fighting efforts inthe months since | was ‘elected mayor, and | belleve our new Cily Counel has, in those months, set up our police department for success In the future. We passed a budget that reflects the City Counci's ‘commitment to puble safely, A new pay structure andthe findings ofthe KPMG study should help the police department atract and retain talent and become smarter about deploying resources. | created the Task Force on Safe Communities because | believe we cannot rey solely on the police department to fight crime, ‘And Iwas publicly supportive, inthe face of ericiem by some elected leaders in our community, Of the deployment of Texas Department of Public Safely officers on a short-term basis to bolster four summer crime iiative. But as we approach 2020, itis my expectation that our ciy staff and our police department wil work more aggressively and transparently toward making Dallas safer. While | believe Dallas remains relatively safe for a major U.S, cy, the level of vilent crime we hhave seen through eleven months of 2018 is patently unacceptable. We have already far ‘exceeded the homicide total in 2018 and Dallas is now on pace for more than 200 homicides for the fist time since 2007. The number of Afscan Americans alone who have been klled in our city in 2019 is staggering and would constitute a bad year for total homicides in many large U.S, cites. ‘Our city has also had hundreds more aggravated assauits and robberies this year ‘compared to last year, which Is perhaps an even better Indicator that violent crime is uly onthe rise In aur aty In light ofthis undeniable increase In violet crime, 1 do not believe the City Councll has received 2 suffcienty clear explanation of what is driving this increase or what the police departments Specific pian Isto reverse it. understand that crime is complex and dynamic, an that our crime fighting strategies must evolve as new trends arse, but | have not heard anyone articulate & ‘concrete plan to reduce violent crime in our cty by a particular amount and by atime certain. This, ‘must change now.Erle Jonnson Accordingly | hereby request that you instruct the police departmentto produce a comprehensive, ‘written plan to reduce Violent cre in Dallas by a time certain. Ths plan should include clear anc rhumercal violent exime reduction goals and timelines, specific strategies for achieving these reductions, and an anelysis ofthe trends and drivers of violent crime in our city | would like for this violent crime reduction pan to be completed by the end of the year, and for it tobe briefed tothe City Counci's Public Safety Commitee in January We cannot continue to accept the status quo or tolerate excuses when it comes to violent crime, |While we all have roles to play to make our communities ésfer, we need our police department to lead the way when it comes to explaining the trends and drivers of violent crime in our ty and to ‘work aggressively to reduce it In addition, the public is entitled to 2 clearer presentation of violent crime data. The crime information currently posted online is too dificult to decipher. The clear and concise presentation Of Violent crime data is important to engaging and informing our residents as well as those considering making Dallas their home. Accordingly, please let me know when a public safely dashboard that Geary presents violent crime cata in @ manner substartialy similar to the fenclosed document can be made available online. ‘As always, do not hestiate to contact me if you have any questions Sincerely, Erie Johnson Mayor Enel, Ce: Adam MeGough, Chair, Committee on Public Safety