Dallas officials report 12.7% decline in violent crime, cite focused grids and outreach

Major Nathan Swires of the Dallas Police Department told the Public Safety Committee on April 14 that overall violent crime was down 12.68% year‑to‑date, with notable declines in robberies and murders.

“Overall violent crime is down 12.68%,” Major Nathan Swires said, and the department reported 23 fewer murders for 2025 with a clearance rate of about 57%. Swires told the committee that business robberies showed significant improvement — down 62 fewer robberies for the year — and attributed those reductions to a serial squad that is working cases more rapidly and the deployment of focused deterrence grids (Period 20 grids ran Feb. 1–March 31; Phase 21 grids deployed April 1).

Swires described other tactics: the violent crime division now includes apartment community teams that operate alongside neighborhood police officers (NPOs), and the department said family violence detectives will participate in outreach and training for multifamily staff at identified high‑incident locations. Swires said the apartment community work and targeted training will be reevaluated quarterly.

Council members asked whether apartment outreach would be handled by the violent crime division or NPOs; Swires said the apartment community team is part of the violent crime division but will coordinate with NPOs and include family violence detectives for education and victim outreach. The committee was told the apartment community unit will be staffed by one sergeant and seven officers structured so that “there’s 1 officer assigned that would be assigned to every division,” with the unit focused on multifamily properties citywide.

Council members praised the reductions and asked for continued quarterly evaluations. The committee also discussed using public service announcements and targeted visits to the top locations for training and prevention.