A new report presented to Dallas City Council members Tuesday shows overall violent crime continues to decline.
One of the police programs that helped achieve those results is expanding to a troubled South Dallas apartment complex, and residents said Monday they welcomed the extra attention.
“They need to build a police station here,” said tenant Dana Branch.
The security gates at the Rosemont at Meadow Lane Apartments at Elsie Faye Heggins Street were fully open on Monday.
Tenants who were willing to be interviewed said trouble keeps coming through those doors.
Branch said young people were running around the building, tearing things up and scratching residents’ cars.
“I don’t even let my daughter go out to play. She can’t come out and play. She can’t play with these kids,” Blanche said.
Another tenant, who requested anonymity, recalled a neighbor who was murdered in the building two years ago.
She said the problem got worse.
“There are rats. There are cockroaches. There are stray dogs out there, running around. There’s crime, kids breaking into people’s apartments, cars being robbed,” she said.
License plate-reading cameras posted outside the building may help detect stolen vehicles that were also dumped inside the building, according to tenants and police.
Now, the police program extended to the complex is called PNI Local Network Investigation.
As designated PNI locations, concerns about law enforcement, trash, lighting and other things that make a place more prone to violence will also be addressed along with crime.
“The smell here is terrible. It’s always dirty. I’m sick of it,” Blanche said.
Sheriff Eddie Garcia has said in the past that police cannot arrest their way out of crime and that in order to achieve lasting reductions in crime, it is necessary to focus on these other issues.
In a report presented to the Dallas City Council Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, violent crime fell overall by 11.77% in 2023 as of Sept. 30th Compared to last year. Aggravated assaults fell by 16.36%, but murder was the exception, rising by about 10%, with 18 murders increasing over the same period.
Tenants at Rosemont at Meadow Lane say they are impatient with the results in reducing crime there.
“I don’t like my kids playing outside because there are a lot of kids here, swearing, bad influence, a lot of negative things,” one tenant said. “I’m looking for a new place now. I can’t do this anymore. It’s getting worse and worse.”
Other tenants, who declined to speak publicly, supported the police’s decision to expand the complex’s PNI program.
On-site managers at the complex declined to comment and directed NBC 5 to obtain state ownership contact email and phone information. Voicemails and emails were not returned Monday.
