Dallas police are telling city residents not to call them to report a wide variety of crimes.
Instead, residents are being told that as of July 3, instead of calling 911, they must go online to dallaspolice.net to fill out a form.
Chief Eddie García said the new rule will cut the time it takes to reach what the police have determined are high-priority calls, according to the Dallas Morning News.
“We have to think about our men and women and the stress that they’re under and the constant calls,” García said.
“We have to make the working conditions of our men and women better and, at the same time, not sacrifice the service for our community — and I think this achieves that,” he said.
“I know it’s hard to fathom, but once that report is done it would be no different than if an officer had taken it,” he said, according to KTVT-TV.
Not everyone likes the idea.
”If someone breaks into your car and steals something — what if it’s a gun? What happens if it’s your wallet and they have your credit cards or jewelry?” East Dallas resident Edward Roblez said, according to WFAA-TV.
this is culling,this is not appropiate to seniors and those that have no internet and data service
Dallas police will make it mandatory to report some non-emergency calls online – YouTube https://t.co/Eo68jJzyMo— rmpbklyn ?? ???? (@rmpbklyn) June 21, 2023
According to the Dallas Morning News, police will no longer respond to the scene for shoplifting less than $2,500, traffic accidents with no injuries when the vehicles can still drive, burglaries involving vehicles, credit or debit card abuse, harassment via phone or text that is not related to family violence, and other categories of crime.
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García said 911 should be called for medical emergencies or a crime in progress.
Dallas police 911 administrator Robert Uribe said Dallas residents without internet can use a phone to report a crime.
He also offered the option of traveling to either a Dallas police substation to use a kiosk there to file the form, or to a public library.
Garcia claimed that voluntary use of online reporting saved 51,000 patrol hours.
However, in the first quarter of this year, the response time to top-priority calls was about 10 minutes, up 6.2 percent over the same period in 2022, according to police data.
The response time for calls in the priority-two category was 91.89 minutes, while the response time for priority-three cases was 583 minutes, slightly more than the priority-four response time of 574 minutes. All are increased response times over a year ago.
“We know firsthand in an emergency every second counts,” García said. “We want our officers to be available to respond quickly and efficiently to any high-priority call.”
Garcia said Dallas needs about 500 more officers. The department has 3,023 sworn officers, police representative Kristin Lowman said. That’s down from a peak of more than 3,500 officers.
According to Vanlifewanderer, in 2021 the violent crime rate in Dallas was 863.90 incidents per 100,000 residents, more than double the national average.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.