The City of Dallas and a group of public and private sector leaders led by Downtown Dallas, Inc. (DDI), and the Dallas Citizens Council have launched Safe in the City, a campaign to improve public safety and address homelessness solutions in downtown Dallas.
According to a release, the work was commissioned by DallasNews Corporation Chief Executive Officer and publisher of Dallas Morning News Grant Moise and is based largely on a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) analysis conducted in 2024.
That work organized a group of business and civic leaders and public officials to address challenges with public safety, homelessness, and vibrancy and economic development.
“My goal was to pull a group of people together who had the collective resources and passion to ensure that we put downtown on a better trajectory to ultimately make it as safe and vibrant as we all want it to be,” says Moise in a statement. “With the right leadership in the room, we immediately got to work devising and implementing an action plan.”
The BCG report recommended six measures to ensure safety and security long term, which the Safe in the City campaign combines into three categories: Visible presence, visible interest, and vibrant downtown.
The measures include:
- Increased policing and presence: Surveillance cameras and other technological infrastructure will be expanded for proactive crime detection and deterrence.
- Increased coordination among police and security entities: All police and security personnel will have access to a shared communication channel to improve incident response and coordination.
- Continue push for rehousing:
- Expand Downtown Community Court
- “De-magnetize” hotspots
- Address needs associated with re-entry of formerly incarcerated individuals.
The initiative is in response to public safety and homelessness challenges post-pandemic, and concerns from residents and businesses. Coalition leaders stressed that work has been underway for nearly a year, leading to decreases in crime, and an “effective end” to street homelessness downtown.
“Over the past 15 months, business, civic, and nonprofit leaders were joined by police and security officials to study our challenges and come up with a series of sustainable solutions,” says DDI President & CEO Jennifer Scripps in a statement. “Thanks to our partnership with Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and the Dallas Police Department, we are reporting a 29 percent decrease in overall crime in Downtown this year to date, as well as substantial decreases in quality-of-life reports that the DDI security, homeless outreach, and clean teams address.”
According to BCG projections, full implementation of the six-pronged strategy could yield over $4 billion in incremental property value and generate hundreds of millions in incremental tax revenues.
