{"id":296748,"date":"2025-10-12T07:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T07:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/296748\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T07:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T07:39:09","slug":"darts-crime-and-safety-perception-issues-persist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/296748\/","title":{"rendered":"DART\u2019s crime and safety perception issues persist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Area Rapid Transit isn\u2019t doing enough to reduce crime and make riders feel safe on its system. <\/p>\n

A recent pair of fatal shootings<\/a> at DART facilities in the span of a week<\/a> brought the transit system\u2019s safety struggles back into the spotlight. <\/p>\n

Agency leaders should renew and redouble their focus on the public\u2019s legitimate safety concerns, which remain a big reason many prefer to avoid Dallas\u2019 transit system. <\/p>\n

Getting agency leadership to discuss the issue more often would be a good place to start. DART Police Chief Charles Cato delivers a detailed quarterly report about crime statistics to members of the agency\u2019s board of directors. They\u2019re good reports, but board members should be getting them monthly. That would help ensure crime trends stay front of mind. <\/p>\n

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And DART can do more to make that detailed data easily available to the public. Dallas City Council Member Cara Mendelsohn has asked the agency to post crime reports to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DART does publish some data<\/a>, but generally with little detail<\/a>. Prior to board meetings, the agency posts agenda documents that include presentations like Cato\u2019s, an agency spokesperson explained. But after the meetings, they\u2019re available only as part of the video recordings \u2014 not something most people are willing to watch. <\/p>\n

Statistics are important, but the agency should remember that the perception of crime is nearly as important as the reality of it. <\/p>\n

For example, the presence of homeless individuals who may appear dangerous \u2014 whether they actually are or not \u2014 tends to make passengers feel unsafe, particularly if there are few others around them. Even if there\u2019s no crime or incident report, passengers will tend to remember that occasion the next time they make a decision about whether to use DART. <\/p>\n

A big part of the problem is DART\u2019s open-platform system. It\u2019s been suggested many times that DART should shift to a closed system, but it\u2019s unclear whether the cost and logistical barriers to that can realistically be overcome. <\/p>\n

We suggest that DART may need to consider dedicating more resources than it already does to safety. For fiscal year 2026, the police budget is $61.2 million, an agency spokesperson said. DART has 231 police officers, 76 fare enforcement officers and 100 transit security officers. DART\u2019s website indicates<\/a> it has more than 6,800 bus stops and 65 light rail stations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that this isn\u2019t a DART-exclusive problem; transit agencies all over the country are facing similar issues. Like DART, Denver\u2019s Regional Transportation District has struggled to increase ridership and has faced safety concerns from riders<\/a>, The Denver Post reported. <\/p>\n

We aren\u2019t trying to trivialize the massive task of making a public transit system safe. But at the same time, DART needs to try different strategies and explore new ideas. Ridership will never grow if people don\u2019t feel safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Area Rapid Transit isn\u2019t doing enough to reduce crime and make riders feel safe on its system.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":296749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,40460,6083,358,522,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-296748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dart","11":"tag-editorials","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-transportation","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115360062733786511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}