Safety first

This Dallas neighbor nabs ranking as safest city in Texas

Flower Mound is the safest city in Texas.

Murders, robberies, and sexual assaults plague many big American cities. Fortunately, Flower Mound isn’t one of them. Home to more than 76,000 people, Flower Mound recorded no homicides, 10 robberies, and 13 sexual assaults in all of 2018.

With a safety score of 90.42 out of 100, Flower Mound ranks as the safest city in Texas with at least 50,000 residents and the 10th safest in the U.S., according to a new study by SafeHome.org, which reviews and rates home security systems. SafeHome.org based its rankings on 2018 data reported to the FBI regarding about the number and types of crimes in a community, as well as on crime trends and the ratio of law enforcement officers to residents.

Flower Mound actually can boast that it’s been recognized for a number of years as one of the safest cities in Texas.

In its annual report for 2018, the Flower Mound Police Department gave credit to the “hard work and dedication” of the department’s employees for helping ensuring the safety of Flower Mound residents from year to year. Of course, Flower Mound isn’t crime-free, though.

While a tiny number of homicides, robberies, and sexual assaults are reported annually in Flower Mound, police did investigate 560 thefts, 45 burglaries, 28 car thefts, and 25 aggravated assaults in 2018, according to data reported to the FBI.

Still, NeighorhoodScout.com says the odds of being victimized by violent crime in Flower Mound are 1 in 1,743, compared with 1 in 228 across Texas. For property crime, the odds of being victimized in Flower Mound are 1 in 110, compared with 1 in 39 across Texas.

In all, Flower Mound joins four other Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs in the top 10 of SafeHome.org’s ranking of Texas’ safest cities with at least 50,000 residents. Here’s the complete top 10:

Flower Mound (Denton and Tarrant counties) — Safety score of 90.42 out of 100.
Allen (Collin County) — Safety score of 88.02 out of 100.
Georgetown (Austin) — Safety score of 86.49 out of 100.
Mansfield (Ellis, Johnson, and Tarrant counties) — Safety score of 85.47 out of 100.
Pflugerville (Austin) — Safety score of 85.28 out of 100.
Cedar Park (Austin) — Safety score of 85.08 out of 100.
Sugar Land (Houston) — Safety score of 84.61 out of 100.
Frisco (Collin and Denton counties) — Safety score of 84.6 out of 100.
Rowlett (Dallas and Rockwall counties) — Safety score of 84.56 out of 100.
League City (Houston) — Safety score of 83.6 out of 100.

Among the state’s five biggest cities, Dallas ranked first in the SafeHome.org study, with a safety score of 70.85 out of 100. That put it at No. 45 among the 65 Texas cities included in the study.

Here’s how the state’s other major cities fared:

47. Fort Worth — Safety score of 70.5 out of 100.

49. Austin — Safety score of 70.3 out of 100.

61. Houston — Safety score of 63.1 out of 100.

64. San Antonio — Safety score of 60.69 out of 100.

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Politics News

Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

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This is an Dallasite's sign to launch that small business they've been dreaming of.

After six months without a city manager, the city of Dallas has narrowed down the field of replacements to four semifinalists including one serving as current interim city manager, plus candidates from Fort Worth, Michigan, and Georgia.

Dallas has been without a city manager since May, when previous city manager T.C. Broadnax left to take a job with the city of Austin. Since that time, Broadnax's former chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as interim city manager.

The city retained Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to recruit and compile candidates. (Baker Tilly famously erred in the brochure it created for the position by featuring a photo of the Houston skyline instead of Dallas; they've since replaced it with Dallas.)

A spokesperson for Baker Tilly did not respond to inquiries but according to D Magazine, an email listing the candidates has been sent to the Dallas City Council.

The semifinalists include:

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ current interim city manager
William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth
Mark Washington, the city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia

All have more than 25 years' of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities.

Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.

Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin before becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Williams has mostly worked in Georgia at the county level, including serving as county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.

Tolbert began working for the city in 1998, first as the city manager’s assistant and later in the aviation department. Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff in 2017.

Unlike the Mayor and the Dallas City Council, the city manager position in Dallas is not elected but is instead appointed by the city council, and is tasked with executing policies, overseeing the annual budget, and managing staff at city hall.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee will choose finalists, introduce them to the public, and make an offer in early 2025.

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