The newly formed 'Mayor's Task Force on Safe Communities' met for the first time in Dallas Friday.
Following a rise in crime and the recent murder of a 9-year-old girl, the hope is the task force will offer potential ways to curb crime patterns.
"The data isn't going to tell us if we have a problem, we know we have a problem the data is going to help us in terms of coming up with solutions," Rene Martinez, one of the task force's three co-chairs, said.
Martinez said Friday's meeting was a "housekeeping meeting" as the group organizes where and when to meet.
"We are going to reach out into the community, we are probably going to have some meetings in the community, we are going to have some speakers," Martinez said.
Martinez said the Mayor also plans to appoint more people to the task force and that he is "optimistic they can come up with ways to help combat the crime in Dallas.
In the neighborhood where 9-year-old Brandoniya Bennett was murdered August 14, neighbors also hope the task force will succeed and bring in more police.
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"It's one of those things where you have to see if it will play out the way that you hoped for," Ashley Ferguson said. "I don't see enough police."
Bennett was laid to rest Friday at Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas, surrounded by family and friends.
"What comes to mind, I guess you could say is anger," Ferguson said.
