I told you, I was going to ask
you a little bit about the
Year Violent Crime Task Force.
Do you think that that's been pt
of why you've been successful in
bringing some of the categories down?
Absolutely. And I always say th,
the proactive nature of this Poe
Department is what keeps us afl.
And having, you know,
our P and I teams that we have n
specific hotspot areas in the cy
has absolutely reduced violent crime.
You know, it's statistics
that we'll never see.
You know just just they were dog
they were they were running seah
warrants on the 4th of July yesterday.
While you know,
while you know while while while people
were celebrating the 4th of Jul.
We had the men and women of this
Police Department working hard
to take the criminal element off
our streets on the 4th of July.
And not just you know obviously
our patrol officers that worked
were amazing that they didn't gt
a chance to celebrate with their
families and and did an excellet
job of of of showing up.
And and continuing to serve but
you know when you see these the
these specialized units you know
go out in these neighborhoods ad
you know when they you know thee
made you know drug seizures and
weapons like what what what some
people won't understand that I w
the men and women of this Police
Department stand I certainly dos
for every drug house that's hith
with weapons and drugs there are
aggravated assaults and murders that.
Were stopped because of that.
Obviously we'll never be able to prove
it from a from a specific perspective,
but I know that you know when when you
have neighbors coming up to ourk
force officers telling them thank you,
giving them gratitude because
kids couldn't walk near a house
because they were fearful of it.
It absolutely has played an important role.
The job that they do,
the job that all of our other
proactive units are doing,
and P and I has done an amazingb
and they are part of the Crime .
But when you look at our narcotics teams,
when you look at our gang units,
when you look at our SWAT teams,
what they are just they're
doing tremendous work.
That is what's what,
what's keeping us on the right direction.
And so forever thankful and
grateful for the work that they,
but they enjoy doing it.
I think when they get that,
that gratitude from the communi,
that's why we do what we do and
that's why they do what they
do and I'm very proud of them.
What's the difference between
the P and I teams and say your
your other specialized units,
why is this group different?
Well this work, this group works
directly out of the office of te
Chief Police and they work it's
it's specific to the Crime Plan.
Now obviously every, every unite
is specific is is Crime plan focused,
but then they also have other
responsibilities or citywide and
doing other things in other are.
Where these two teams are are actually
are devoted to five areas that e
grids that have been historical,
you know, that have struggled wh
violence historically and they'e
concentrated in those areas.
And you know the reductions in in the
grids and that the work they're doing.
I mean if it it proves that you
know as we grow as a department
and as we grow our units is to
being focused and using data to
drive where our officers are at,
using intelligence to lead us te
right areas and individuals that
are committing violence is how u
reduce and continue to reduce tl
violent crime in the city and s.
The main difference is that
that is their role,
that is their job to be specifiy
assigned to the five historicaly
violent areas that we've had
in our city and continue to
reduce violence in those grids.
It seems so daunting when you lk
at when you see what happened in
Fort Worth and the gun violence
that we're seeing in Dallas and
all over the not just in Dallas,
I mean across the country.
It just seems such such a daunting task
for police as the major city po.
Chief President,
that you must hear a lot like t.
You must have had conversationsh
Noakes and others about what can
other cities do to try to bringn
that gun violence because I mea,
I mean yesterday just was horrifying.
And what was happening at other
parts of the Metroplex?
Absolutely. I mean you look if
you look nationally, when you lk
what happened in Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington, DC.
It was this this was a very violent week.
I mean literally A5 day work.
It was a five day holiday weekend you
know theoretically almost and is
very violent and so yeah the Chiefs we
will all get together and continue to
you know I mean we really have to come
up with our plans and and be truthful
and be in and have that and havr
plans in place to reduce violent crime.
You know I there's there one off
incidents that occur often time.
And so you have to can remain focused
and certainly if you remember te
the the shooting that we had afr
the trail ride last year in Dal.
So we we we feel the city of Fort Fort
Worth's pain and we understand what that
is because we've lived through it as well.
And you have to stay,
you have to stay true to your plans the
reduction of violent crime and the goal
is to reduce the incidence invog
gun related aggravated assaults which
we're we're fortunate enough toe
reducing here in the city of Da.
And we have to continue to stay
on that course.
Certainly you know as you well w
here in Dallas, the permitting process,
the fact that we need officers at events,
the fact that events need to met
certain requirements and criter,
those are things that we learned
from our pain last year.
And so there are ways to mitigate those
type of events and unfortunately often
times you you can't prevent them 100%,
but you could hope to mitigate
a lot of the factors.
Our hearts go out to the community of
Fort Worth and to the men and w,
the Fort Worth Police Departmen,
because we understand.
But you know,
I know good friends with Chief
Noakes and I know that he's got
a plan in place and I'm hopeful
that that it will continue to ge
them the results of less victim.
But certainly gun crime is an
epidemic not just in the Metrop,
but in in in the country.
And and we have to continue
to stay the course,
let our community know
that we're never leaving,
that we're going to continue
to do what we do.
Our men and women need to contie
to be proactive and try to prevt
these before they happen by going out,
by using intelligence,
by using data to go to the areas and the
people and places that are causing these.
And so,
you know,
we see these events and these
mass shootings that occurred.
I think what I think I just
read this morning,
I think there were 18 mass shoos
nationally in the last in the last five days.
And and we deal with those,
but in in those are obviously
tragic but we have shootings
that occur every day that don't
get you know the national news,
national attention but those are
those are the victims and famils
that are affected on those as wl
And that's what police departmes
police chiefs deal with is to
concentrate on to do the best we can to
mitigate large scale mass shoot.
But really to concentrate on the
everyday violent crime by contig
to use intelligence and data and
relying on the unbelievable hard work
of the men and women of our deartments.