A two-hour meeting Tuesday between top county and city law enforcement officers wrapped up at Dallas Police Headquarters without any concrete plans for action being formed.
"I thought it was a great brainstorming session," said Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez. "We are trying to get everybody on board for the same thing."
Dallas police say they want to think outside-of-the-box to bring down a 20-percent spike in violent crime this year, by parterning up with other county and state law enforcement agencies.
"I'm sure we will have other meetings where we will discuss specifically the task each of us will take," Valdez added.
Violent crime in Dallas is up by more than 20 percent through the first three months of 2016, compared to the same time period last year.
There have been more than 800 robberies and more than 800 aggravated assaults.
Last week, Police Chief David Brown backed off a plan to move 600 officers into overnight and weekend shifts. He instead reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety and county officials for help.
"We've never been asked to help in an area where the city is responsible, but we all like to think outside the box. Let's try something different," Valdez said.
The police chief says much off the crime increase is due to drug offenses and family violence assaults, and he wants to team up with other departments to track down violent offenders with outstanding warrants.
Brown was not at Tuesday's meeting. Valdez arrived with several of her top lieutenants to discuss how they can be of service, within limits.
"We're going to have that discussion. I don't want to hurt my department to help theirs," the sheriff said.
Specifically she won't dip into her department's overtime budget.
"That's part of our plan. We are not going to put them on overtime," Valdez said.
After the meeting the sheriff said her suggestion to Dallas' deputy police chiefs was to work together on more frequent "warrant round-up" operations – coordinated efforts to go after drug and domestic violence suspects in targeted communities.
"The plan is for us to work together. And we're going to try to work around our expertise," Valdez said. "If we have a certain area where there's a lot of warrants that need be served, we'll saturate that area. I think the plan is to have a show of force."
Last week during the City Council Public Safety Committee briefing, Brown attributed part of the violent crime surge to unseasonably warm winter temperatures.
"We were seeing summertime 911 call volumes in February," he said at the time. But two weeks later, there's still no blueprint for specialized joint-operations.
"The meeting was to discuss a collaborative effort to reduce crime," the Dallas Police Department said in a statement after Tuesday's meeting. "The plan is evolving and has not been finalized."
The police chief said Monday that he's talked with DPS about bringing in highly-trained SWAT teams and SRT [Special Response Teams] to help go after hundreds of wanted suspects with violent histories.
In an e-mail, a DPS spokesman said they are working on a "preliminary plan" to assist Dallas but there's no timetable on when extra state officers would arrive.
