Monday, December 31, 2007

Good News, Bad News for Dallas Crime

From WBAP News/Talk 820:


Dallas (WBAP)- Violent crime in Dallas dropped to its lowest level since the 1960's in 2007, but the city recorded 202 murders for the year, an eight percent increase.

Police Chief David Kunkle says homicides represent a small portion of overall statistics, while pointing out that violent crime is down for the sixth year in a row.

Kunkle and Mayor Pro Tem Dwayne Caraway are hoping state legislators can help with some sort of restrictions on handguns, which were used in 75% of the murders in the city.
We all know just "how well" those gun restrictions are working in other big cities, maybe if we just do them harder here in Dallas the result may be different. Good luck in that.

I emailed Police Chief Kunkle and Mayor Pro Tem Caraway a request for more information on exactly what handgun restrictions they were looking for, and how they expected those restrictions to help with the murder rate in Dallas. We'll just have to see what they have to say about the issue.

5 comments:

the pistolero said...

Here's hoping Texas legislators tell them where they can stick their gun restrictions.

Anonymous said...

Amen to that.

Next they are going to re-affirm their war-on-drugs campaign. I would suppose that would work equally well.
Except, it didn't.

Maybe they will stop tenderfooting around the real issues here and actually achieve something. Somehow, I doubt it.

If Kunkle or the rest of the "Only Ones" were to look at a regional map of where the crimes are committed, then perhaps they could concentrate most of their efforts to the areas overflowing with crime, i.e. Fair Park, Pleasant Grove, East Dallas, etc.

Oh, but I suppose that would be profiling.

phlegmfatale said...

Perhaps the crime stats in Dallas have been dropping because legally armed citizens have taken out more than a few dirtbags in the midst of committing crimes. Let us know if you get any response.

John R said...

I had hoped for a response from Chief Kunkle at least, but to date there has been none.

Maybe if I asked the Mayor what his Chief of Police was talking about?

Anonymous said...

I point you to a fabulous book titled Homicide by David Simon. In the 1980s he stayed in the Homicide department in Baltimore for a year for an in depth investigation on crime. He points out all crime statistics except for homicide can not be trusted. A police can turn an armed robbery into plain robbery but getting the witness to say that the gun may have been something else. The only thing you cannot hide is a body. A murder is a murder.