This week's Trackdown looks back at the murder of Aareon Johnson in Deep Ellum. It’s the fourth murder there since May that moved Dallas police to create a unit specifically to work the Deep Ellum Entertainment District.
Dallas code compliance department hiring dozens of new employees
The city is looking to hire 34 new positions, a staffing increase of about 20%.
While applicants for code enforcement would not be police officers, the head of the department believes they could help bring down crime in Dallas in ways police, alone, cannot. If you can get neighborhoods that look good and look like people care, criminals are less likely to go to those areas. If there are dilapidated abandoned cars, it is a message people don t care, let’s deal our drugs take advantage of people, Carl Simpson said.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia agrees, and included the need for code compliance to get rid of blighted buildings as part of his crime reduction plan.