Why is having a safe night secret? Dallas’ economy continues to nosedive while Dallas does not respond to crime increases.
In April 2022, a private entity, Safe Night LLC, put on a “free” program for Dallas city employees. (It is unclear if Safe Night LLC got paid by Dallas city or not. The City of Dallas has not responded to open records requests to date.)
Dallas is currently experiencing unparalled violent crime rates. Dallas has experienced one hundred ten murders to date. This is twenty-seven higher than 2020.
Nearly every weekend, Dallas police is responding to incidents in entertainment districts like Deep Ellum and Greenville Avenue.
It is hard to have a complete picture of violent crime given Dallas Police choice to hide crime data.
Secret Safe Night Blame Games: Business and Cops
Currently, community activists working in concert with private special interests are attacking Dallas police for not participating in ongoing discussion. This comes just a year after Deep Ellum attacked city officials for enforcing noise ordinances.
Safe Night LLC will not release its report to Other Side Dallas that they provided to city management. They are also not releasing city employee evaluations of the April program. There are reports they did provide it to city officials in Dallas and 24 Hour Dallas. They seem to be hiding the data from everyone else.
Other Side Dallas is waiting for response on cost to the city for these services.
Line police officers we spoke to paint a clear picture that the Safe Night program is not realistic.
One officer called the presented program another social justice experiment.
The officer said, “it’s great for people who want to defund cops.” She continued, “it’s bad for everyday citizens avoiding crime.”
Beyond Dallas Police, it is unclear the relationship between the private entities. The Deep Ellum Foundation reportedly pulled out of 24 Hour Dallas a few weeks ago.
24 Hour Dallas also had a leadership shake up with one principal saying Randal White got pushed out.
Bryan Tony took over as lead on the Good Neighbor Initiative. He also would not respond to a request for the 24 Hour documents.