Eight months ago, Dallas PD created a new team for homelessness enforcement. We were curious how its work squares with recent efforts to connect people in encampments to housing/treatment/shelter. Kelli found two very different approaches, which shows how complicated this issue is on the ground.

281 detentions. $500 fines. A mounting pile of warrants. Records show a new Dallas PD team has zip-tied unhoused people across 61 locations in a pivot toward enforcement. My latest on the city’s new approach to homelessness—and the concern it’s stirring amongst service providers:

Dallas' juvenile justice system seemed to reach a crisis point in 2023. Researchers found many kids who didn’t need to be jailed, but spent months detained only to get probation or a short sentence. A report shows that’s begun to change—and conditions inside the jail are shifting, too. More here:

"A 'priority two,' which is considered the second-most serious and can include domestic violence incidents, took officers an average of 32 minutes to get to in 2020. In 2025, that average was about 179 minutes." Kelli investigates officer staffing decisions and their impact on response times.

I spent the last few weeks analyzing where Dallas allocates patrol cops with a question in mind: How do police manage staffing for perception vs. risk? I dove into lots of data and spoke with police chiefs, elected officials and criminologists to try to make sense of Dallas’ changing priorities:

The stats are in, and they confirm a big trend: Dallas ended 2025 with 141 murders, a *10-year low.* To put that in perspective: 📉 43 fewer people murdered than in 2024. 📉 Dallas' 4th lowest murder count since 1995. A significant drop that has largely flown under the radar.

This weekend I met a boy who saw his mother for the first time since he was 9 months old. A family praying for a mother’s release from prison. And a woman whose life was near collapse before she saw her daughter. My latest @labreportdallas.bsky.social features the program changing their lives.

Dallas will likely end 2025 with its fifth straight decline in violent crime, in part by focusing on tiny geographies that account for most of it. What's that look like in practice? And what can't the cops solve? @kellixsmith.bsky.social on Volara in Oak Cliff: labreportdallas.com/p/the-stubbo...

In 2024, Dallas' most violent apartment complex became a tale of success after police appeared to lead a dramatic turnaround. Then, this year, violence began rising again. For @labreportdallas.bsky.social, I looked into what Volara's volatility tells us.

And here is the link to that piece about the City Council briefing on the 287(g) program. www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...

It's official: A Starbucks will open next door to he restored Forest Theater in South Dallas. My latest story for The Lab Report looks at why Forest Forward decided this was the right call for the project—and its neighbors. labreportdallas.com/p/why-starbu...

Headlines in the last month portray the city of Dallas in chaos. We've had killings outside an ICE facility, a nightclub, a shopping center, a beheading at a motel. A story that isn’t being told: Dallas is on pace for one of its lowest murder tallies in a decade. I dug into the data in my latest.

What does the government shutdown fight have to do with Dallas hospitals? For @labreportdallas.bsky.social, I break down how planned health care cuts could hit the county’s safety net—with $130M already on the line. “There’s going to be some rough seas.”

With the fight over healthcare shutting down the federal government today, The Lab Report's @kellixsmith.bsky.social looks beyond the political bickering and digs into the real-life implications across North Texas, especially within Parkland Health. labreportdallas.com/p/deep-medic...

A woman had a theory: could small teams deployed after a drug overdose or poisoning save lives? Three years since the fentanyl crisis struck North TX, deaths are declining. My latest spotlights a 33-year-old at the center of the fight.

ICYMI: While the dominant public safety conversation in Dallas was about adding more cops, violent crime fell 48% across 150 sites in just six months. Police officers had very little to do with it. From @labreportdallas.bsky.social's @kellixsmith.bsky.social labreportdallas.com/p/dallas-bli...

For my latest story, I feature Dallas' City Action Strike Team — a trio that targets urban decay with an ambitious goal in mind: Could improving these spaces help reduce violence? So far, we've found, the results are promising. More here:

Dobie Pre-K will soon be a hub for services in Esperanza. To understand the significance of local government finally paying attention here, @kellixsmith.bsky.social spent weeks with residents to learn about resilience and community in this pocket of North Dallas. labreportdallas.com/p/esperanza-...

In my first story for The Lab Report Dallas, I spent weeks in Esperanza, a neighborhood once called "mayhem" where a third of households live on less than $25,000 a year. After a school shuttered, officials stepped in — and residents turn to resilience.

The full website goes live in the fall. We’ve hired @kellixsmith.bsky.social, one of Dallas' best reporters, as a staff writer. Email newsletters go out every Wednesday. We want to help Dallas understand what’s working, what’s not, and why. Join us! (Also it’s free.) labreportdallas.com/subscribe

🧵 Fourish months ago, @sharongrigsby.bsky.social and I holed up in essentially a glass-doored closet and talked at each other until we could see the shape of a new publication. The Lab Report has a ways to go—website (the design rips), social accounts (yikes)—but we’re now running stories.

🧵Our first stories are out at The Lab Report Dallas! Leading up to our website launch, we're publishing a new piece every Wednesday to offer a look at the solutions-based journalism you can expect from us. Our first two by @sharongrigsby.bsky.social and @goodmoine.bsky.social are must-reads. 👇

For my last @dallasnews.com story, I sat down with new Chief Daniel Comeaux and community and police leaders to ask how the ex-DEA leader can succeed amid a torrent of challenges here. “Dallas is gonna have to deal with me because I’m not going anywhere.”

Today is my last day at @dallasnews.com and it's still hard to believe it snuck up. Words can't express my gratitude for DMN's chance on me when I was a breaking news fellow. I'm leaving after ~4 years covering Dallas PD, which has been an incredible opportunity to work on important stories.

Not a great situation tonight at Dallas city hall. The city attorney's interruption was a surprise to all board members who had questions prepared for the police chief. We are not done with this.

New: Dallas police oversight members arrived at their meeting tonight expecting to speak with the city’s top cop about a topic on many minds: immigration. There was one catch: They weren’t allowed.

Chief Daniel Comeaux opens his remarks at Dallas’ Community Police Oversight Board by addressing yesterday’s protests. He said he’s sad officers had rocks and bottles thrown at them, but he’s proud of their strength and only one person was arrested. Watch: dallastx.new.swagit.com/views/113/dc...

Tonight’s Dallas protests appear to be the most tense DPD/protester interactions since 2020 George Floyd demonstrations. DPD trained a specialized group after those to better handle mass protests. They also come one day before Chief Comeaux is set to address Dallas’ police oversight board.

We are very pro things-that-are-good-for-Dallas: labreportdallas.com

We're building something new over here, and I'm so excited to have Kelli with us. If you care about compelling local journalism that isn't boring, we're launching this for Dallas later this summer. Sign up here: labreportdallas.com

🧵 Life news!: I’m leaving The Dallas Morning News after 4.5 great years, but I’m not going far. I’m thrilled to announce I’m joining @sharongrigsby.bsky.social and @goodmoine.bsky.social at The Lab Report Dallas, an independent newsroom powered by the Child Poverty Action Lab. ✍️

New: An effort to seal unsustained cop misconduct records across Texas failed after a challenge in the TX House. The bill was supported by Dallas PD but raised transparency and accountability concerns. "If you can’t get the record, trust suffers.”

Dallas police want 130 officers downtown by midsummer — its highest staffing level there in a decade. The effort is meant to address public safety and fear of crime. But how DPD will get there amid a staffing crisis is complicated.

Silvester Hayes was detained after Dallas cops mistook him for a man with a similar name. After realizing their mistake, police still jailed him. He lost his job and home. Now, a judge has tossed his suit — saying the cops had probable cause because Hayes didn’t use a turn signal and resisted.

A Dallas officer who was fired, then reinstated, was arrested again. Carlos Almeida faces public intoxication. He'd previously been accused of family strangulation, which was dropped in 2023.

After our investigation revealed DPD’s chief medical officer has a history of sexual harassment allegations spanning at least a decade, Dallas PD Chief Daniel Comeaux told us he’s actively looking into Alexander Eastman. “I’ll be making a decision as soon as I can gather all the facts.”

Dallas PD Chief Daniel Comeaux is making at least $310,000 a year. I asked how long he plans to stay Dallas' chief. "If I can work 10 more years, that’d be amazing,” Comeaux said. “I want everybody to understand that I plan on staying here.”

Dallas SWAT doctor Alex Eastman has been influential for years and is now in a national role at DHS. We spent more than a year looking into him — and found that as he earned acclaim, he also had a history of alleged sexual harassment spanning 3 employers over at least a decade.

Dallas gave each news outlet only 5 minutes to speak with new Chief Daniel Comeaux as he began his first day. In his brief remarks, he made his top priority clear: recruiting. “There will definitely be some changes.”

Breaking: Dallas’ next police chief is Daniel Comeaux, a federal law enforcement leader from Houston who has specialized in drug enforcement for three decades. Comeaux beat four finalists, including interim Chief Michael Igo, to become DPD's 31st leader. t.co/vjtD5JaZnJ

It’s been almost a year since Kansas City Chiefs WR Rashee Rice caused a major collision on a Dallas highway and left, leading police to file 8 charges against him. Since then, we found, very little has changed — as the case has yet to be presented to a grand jury.

The last thing Anyelo Sarabia told his sisters before he was deported was that he loved them. On March 16, his sisters saw a video showing migrants who were sent to El Salvador under a wartime measure President Donald Trump had signed. One of the men looked directly at the camera. It was Sarabia.

Breaking: Dallas is considering five people as the contenders for the city’s next police chief — including a North Texas police chief, two commanders already inside the department and two people with federal law enforcement experience.

New: High-risk domestic violence victims might not have been offered services because Dallas PD didn’t fill out all required data, an audit found, noting cops may not understand the importance of completing forms without continual training.

A judge tossed a suit against Dallas cops accused of pursuing a man until he crashed, then driving off after his car burst into flames. Bystanders saved him and yelled at police, but questions arose over whether the cops saw the crash. W/ @byariajones.bsky.social: www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/...

NEW: Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is putting a $5 million pledge to Dallas on hold after @dallasnews.com revealed that the police academy will likely no longer be at UNT Dallas. He said he wouldn't have known without that reporting — and wants the TX Legislature to get an update. t.co/qBJH78AxoO

Dallas officials repeatedly outlined plans for a new academy for police recruits at UNT Dallas, hailing the site as ideal for a top-notch facility. Records show that plan is now changing — despite millions of dollars already committed to it. W/ @devyanichhetri.bsky.social t.co/5nQ2Xe0ZRH

A report obtained by @dallasnews.com shows that at least 464 investigations into Dallas PD officer misconduct took longer than 90 business days, the standard spelled out in DPD policies. That’s 32% of such investigations from 2018 to 2023. At least 43 cases took longer than a year. t.co/S1PyJdsjKQ

It’s been 5 months since Dallas PD Officer Darron Burks was killed, but to this day, those he left behind credit him for life changes they’re making — and their renewed vigor for public service. “He was so phenomenal he won’t be forgotten.” @dallasnews.com www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2...

For all that went wrong Aug. 29, Dallas police point to Owen Larsen for what went right. The new dispatcher heard a gurgle, then led DPD through a massive response to an officer’s killing. He was thrust into recognition — a feeling, he told me, he has yet to grasp: dallasnews.com/news/public-...