According to Dallas Police Targeted Action Area Grids, violent crime is up 21 percent in the neighborhood the department refers to as Cedar Springs/Wycliff. The grids look at 26 Dallas neighborhoods known as hot spots for crime.
"Ummm, wow!" was the reaction of Oak Lawn resident Edith Ares after learning violent crime is up in her neighborhood.
"Shocking" is the word the president of the neighborhood’s crime watch program used.
Dallas Police say there have been 134 violent crimes this year in the area east of Lemmon, west of Maple, south of Oak Lawn and north of Kings Road. That ranks the popular housing and entertainment district third on a list of most dangerous in Dallas.
The neighborhood near the intersection of Northwest Highway and Harry Hines ranked first on the list.
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"If we see a spike violent crimes, like we have in this case, we are going to deploy more patrol and undercover officers," said Dallas Police Lt. Andy Harvey.
Individual robberies represent the bulk of the crime spike in the Cedar Springs area according to Dallas Police reports. Investigators say most of the crimes are happening along side streets rather than on the popular Cedar Springs strip.
"No place in Dallas is safe anymore," said, Sandy Moseley, an active member of the Oak Lawn Cedar Springs crime watch program. "We got a lot of bad stuff infiltrating into the neighborhood that we hadn't anticipated." But with the bad, Moseley said, comes the good, referring to the Illume, an up and coming retail and residential complex on Cedar Springs. "It’s making a lot of progress!"
In the meantime, Oak Lawn residents like Edith Ares said, "I have to be more careful whenever I go out."
