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Over the weekend, media folk were invited to ride around in Dallas Police cars with officers of the Southwest Patrol Division in Oak Cliff to witness a summer crime-curbing program called Operation Heat Wave. It’s designed to improve police-citizen relations in the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods, where, at the behest of Avon and ‘Melo and an array of available T-shirts, folks just aren’t too chatty with the cops.
I rode shotgun with Detective Ray Martinez, an undercover officer who donned his uni for Saturday’s neighborhood canvassing. The Dallas Police Department called in reinforcements like Martinez for the summer-long neighborhood-surveying program.
Detective Martinez drove a few blocks from the station to Marsalis Street, a commercial stretch dotted with auto-repair shops. Along with two other officers, we walked a stretch of the area, checking in with business owners an employees about local crime.
Martinez explained that these auto shops are often targets for burglars. “For a burglar to make a
quick buck, they can come in here and steal 10 stereos,” he said.
Operation Heat Wave, named for the annual warm-weather
crescendo in criminal activity, targets areas of the city with the
highest burglary rates. It started April 18 and runs through August 31,
and will feature hundreds of officers canvassing area neighborhoods to
ask residents and business owners about crime and how to prevent it.
Martinez
approached an employer of a bus depot that charters between Dallas and
Mexico. The woman said more oversight was needed on her block, where
a student from a nearby school was once assaulted by two
day-laborers waiting on the corner. Like most, she seemed receptive to the officers’ visit.
A few were hesitant. One guy, an employee at a place known to be a chop shop, told Martinez in Spanish that the owner was
not available, hurrying the cops away. The
officers didn’t seem surprised at the reaction, but they were making
sure to stop at every business — even ones they had visited in less
sunny circumstances.
Officers
also knocked on doors at apartment complexes, some known for gang
activity, in hopes that proactive interaction with the entire community
would reduce future crime. Along their route, they distributed a questionnaire with items such as, “Are you aware of the burglaries that have occurred in your neighborhood over the past few months?” and, “Have you
noticed any activity which you might consider unusual or out of the
ordinary?”
Saturday’s ride-a-long and press conference to hype the program came the day after Fox 4’s Lynn Kawano reported
a recent “sudden 5-percent spike in killings” following “a 50-year
low in 2010.” Sergeant Eddie Douglas of the homicide unit told Unfair
Park there’s no clear explanation for the sudden rise, but that
his office has recently been under more stress than usual.
Also as part of this initiative, residents can request to have valuable belongings marked by police with a UV pen. The markings will be recorded so if an item is stolen and resurfaces, it can be traced to its rightful owner, Lieutenant Regina Smith told Unfair Park.
“You can do your purse,” she said, recommending that people even mark designer bags. It seems even grab-and-dash burglars have an eye for the real deal, purse-wise. “I’ve done all mine,” she said.
