Police Raid Red Bird Apartment Complex

Dallas police tested new tactics to crack down on gangs in the Red Bird area on Wednesday.

More than 100 officers and deputies swarmed an apartment complex in the 7200 block of Chaucer Place.

Officers made a dozen arrests and issued 19 trespassing warnings during Operation Tattoo, which stands for "tactical approach to target organized offenders."

Police say just sending out a handful of officers to respond to the gang problem at the apartment complex wasn't going to cut it.

"It's a dangerous gang," Sgt. Gil Cerda said. "They're individuals between 16 and 24 years of age, and they were operating out of this thing quite openly and freely."

Cerda said police went through every vacant apartment in the troubled complex.

Officers confiscated weapons and drugs from the complex just a few weeks ago.

Some residents said they understand the motivation behind the raid, but did not appreciate the new tactic.

"I'm not saying that they're not doing their job, but it's certain ways of going about what you're doing as a police officer," resident Brandon Chattman said.

"It's way out of control now," he said. "Like, I was thinking they had a major drug bust when they're just over here just because they heard of a gang over here, and it's gangs everywhere."

Resident Ashley Smith also said she thought the police action was "a little too much."

"They ain't got to do all this," she said.

Residents said they hope police will work with the community to take back the neighborhood.

"We're working on it, every day," Chattman said. "We just had a meeting about it this morning."

Police said they believe Operation Tattoo was success. Officers said they got several suspected gang members out of the apartment complex.