The conversation about community safety and improvement continued in southern Dallas Tuesday night. Police embarked on a 2019 "listening tour" to engage residents about what's going on in their neighborhoods.
Tuesday's meeting took place at the Beckley-Saner Recreation Center. It's the third of four the department planned throughout the city.
Loreda Jackson, who attended the meeting, said she made Oak Cliff her home decades ago.
"They ask me always, 'If you were to win $1 million, would you leave Oak Cliff?' No, I would not leave Oak Cliff," she said. "I've been in this community for fifty-something years. At least 54."
It's why she's involved in community meetings like this one.
An opportunity to come face-to-face with law and code enforcement is one she said she doesn't take for granted.
"Our community needs a lot of work," Jackson said.
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The Dallas Police Listening Tour is about determining what the work looks like.
Officers who've spent much of their careers in southern Dallas listened to concerns that ran the gamut -- from crime, to video surveillance and even code enforcement.
Jackson said she's been to meetings like this one in the past, only to see very little change. But she said she believed there's something to be said about persistence.
"Maybe if they keep hearing the same thing over and over, they keep hearing my voice, something will get done," she said. "We need somebody to really, really hear us. And then not only hear us but act on it."
Officers at Tuesday night's meeting said their top two goals were to reduce crime and to recruit and retain officers.
