Grand Prairie's chief of police his celebrating his one-year anniversary with the department.
Chief Steve Dye helped apprehend robbery suspects at a gas station earlier this year, something City Manager Tom Hart said is a good example of the chief's leadership.
"He is a working chief," Hart said. "He is out putting up lots of hours, but our people are liking that. It's inspiring them; it's making them want to roll their sleeves up because they see the chief out there doing it with them."
Dye has initiated a number of new programs so far. In one initiative, police officers looked into parked vehicles and graded them on their attractiveness to car burglars. And in another project, a problem-solving unit targeted a specific neighborhood.
"We worked hard to maximize our efficiency," Dye said. "We're really basing our police work on intelligence-led policing and community policing and it's really led to some significant results."
The president of the Westchester community's homeowners association said crime has dropped more than 50 percent in the neighborhood in the past year because of community policing and a higher police presence.
"There were some months that we had zero, nothing, and I have never seen that in the last four years," Rosemary Reed said.
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Grand Prairie residents say Dye has brought positive change to their community.
"He has offered personalization and, at the same time, he's very professional in his job," John Eddlemon said.
Grand Prairie hired Dye, formerly Colleyville's chief of police, after a nationwide search. He said he is just getting started and looks forward to implementing more ideas to help out Grand Prairie in the future.
"I hope this is the first of many successful years where we work with the community to make sure that they're safe, that our crime continues to go down, and we continue to work in all facets of our community," he said.
