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Back in Dallas, Garcia has a go-to phrase to sum up his long-term vision: weeding and seeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to weed the criminal element that\u2019s responsible for violent crime,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re also trying to seed those same areas with positivity. And that\u2019s part of the plan that I hope doesn\u2019t get missed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dallas officials, citing security concerns, have not publicly identified the roughly 50 hot spot grids or the two locations in which they are testing the broader place network investigations strategy. But The Post was allowed to observe the hot spot strategy in a handful of locations last fall.<\/p>\n
Within the grids, opinions from community members ranged from anger to ambivalence, and in some cases, cautious praise.<\/p>\n
In southwest Dallas, the hub of Grid No. 6913 is the Super 7 Inn \u2014 a long-term-stay motel that police officials say has been plagued by violent crime. One night last fall, an officer in an unmarked car entered license plate numbers of nearby cars into an electronic system \u2014 looking for stolen vehicles or other violations. Officers in a marked cruiser soon pulled over a Dodge Charger with an expired registration tag and arrested the driver for outstanding warrants on traffic tickets. A small amount of marijuana was recovered, but officers said the quantity did not meet the threshold for criminal charges.<\/p>\n
Two passengers in the car, who were released without being charged with a crime, criticized the policing tactics used in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not going to protect us,\u201d said Marquez Penagraph, a 22-year-old Black college student. \u201cAin\u2019t no African American, male or female, thinking they\u2019ve got police help. I guarantee you \u2014 they are not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the street, a small group of men watched from a grassy field as police swarmed the area during the stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an area of high crime and high drugs,\u201d said Christopher Middleton, <\/b>37, a long-term resident of the Super 7 Inn. \u201cIf nobody wasn\u2019t doing nothing, [the police] are not gonna be here, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Across the city, in Grid No. 46649, a stretch of rundown houses on Hamilton Avenue had been flagged by police as one of the city\u2019s most violent areas. One house, painted blue, was boarded up. Three women sat on a bed of blankets and pillows on the porch, playing dominoes.<\/p>\n Lauthasal Langley, 45, said that for the past few months, she has used the porch as a place to sleep and keep an eye on her two friends.<\/p>\n \u201cThey think that every time that they see a group of Black folks together, it has to be some drugs going on, or a crime going on,\u201d she said, pointing at the nearby Dallas police officers. \u201cNo. We just like to hang out. This is what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n In a command staff meeting in October, police leaders described evidence of an illegal drug operation within the block of Hamilton Avenue. One official suggested that the next step to address the house where Langley and her friends live would be to work with city code enforcement to declare it uninhabitable and possibly tear it down.<\/p>\n Garcia said the place network investigations strategy aims to provide assistance to people such as Langley by coordinating services from multiple city agencies, including the Office of Homeless Solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cSolving a problem isn\u2019t necessarily arresting people,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n At the end of the year, homicides were down by 13 percent, against a 5 percent increase in homicide numbers in major cities nationwide.<\/a> Dallas officials also reported a citywide 9 percent decrease in violent crime from the previous year.<\/p>\n Smith, the criminologist guiding Dallas\u2019s plan, said the crime reduction program <\/b>is working. Grids that were prioritized in the fall showed a nearly 53 percent reduction in violent crime from the three-month period before the experiment began, according to summary data. Grids that did not receive enhanced policing recorded only a 12 percent decrease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n