Dallas Police Department Creating Task Force to Combat Area's Surge in Armed Robberies

With armed robberies on the rise this year, Dallas police are turning to a time-tested approach to combat the problem: a task force.Plans for a 100-member task force were detailed in an presentation emailed to some officers and obtained by The Dallas Morning News.But critics raise questions about the effectiveness of task forces and believe the city would be better served with putting more patrol officers on the streets to address staffing and response issues. So far this year, armed robberies of businesses are up substantially — 30.5 percent — when compared to the same period last year, according to statistics from the Dallas Police Department. Robberies of individuals are up by about 18 percent so far this year compared to a year ago.  Continue reading...