Dallas police officials say violent crime is increasing and so is the potential for officers' peril, the Dallas Morning News reports. Police Chief David Brown said yesterday that city leaders and the public should expect commanders to put their officers in dangerous situations more often to halt violent crimes and criminals. “We will need to be more aggressive in attacking this challenge,” Brown told the City Council's Public Safety Committee. “Our officers will be put more in harm's way to reduce violent crime. But we will be careful to do our job in a way that respects citizens' civil rights.”
Violent crime is up 9 percent this year, although property crime is down 4 percent. Robberies are up nearly 11 percent this year. Aggravated assaults, which went up last year over 2013, are up again more than 5 percent. Reported sexual assaults have increased by 29 percent. Murders are down to 35 from about 42 during the same time last year. The city hit an 84-year low in the murder rate last year. Alex Piquero, a University of Texas at Dallas criminology professor, said a few months of crime increases are part of a normal ebb and flow that occurs everywhere — not just in Dallas. “We don't want to get too worried about them unless they're sustained,” he said. “Crime is never going to bottom out, and it's never going to stay up forever.”