Dallas councilwoman urges public to work with police to further curb violent crime

DALLAS - Dallas City Councilwoman Carolyn King Arnold, who also serves as deputy mayor pro-tem, has asked police to provide bilingual flyers to residents in the area where an undercover officer was shot.

She went door-to-door to encourage folks to not just see something, say something, but if you know something, do something.

It was the shooting of an undercover officer in East Oak Cliff that is moving Arnold. 

"We can't afford to sit back and allow these types of behaviors to exist in our communities without taking a stand that we're going to take our communities back," she said.

King is concerned about recent gun violence in her district in the last month.

During that time, there have been three homicides. Overall, violent crime across the city is down, police stats show.

Violent crime across Dallas is down more than 19.84%, while aggravated assaults in District 4 that can lead to homicide are down 22.26%.

Arnold said, that for crime to continue going down, citizens have to speak up.

"We have to remember we're data-driven, and that's why we continue to insist that our constituents, our community members take time to call. Don't wait for the next person to call," she said.

At Glendale Park, mother and daughter Lashanna Hughes and Kalen Walker spoke about what they think people’s role is in helping police.

"People are, I want to say, they kind of do what's popular, and it's popular not to snitch," Walker said. "So that's what a lot of people follow the way to do."

"I don't know necessarily why people don't call, but I'm definitely one of those that will call," Hughes said.

Hughes has a different perspective, as violent crime has impacted her.

"My son was shot and killed February the 19th, it made two years this year," she said.

Keymarcus Walker came home from college one weekend and went to visit a young lady in Glenn Heights, where he was shot and killed by another young man.

"A lot of people were, where we were at the crime scene, they were saying things like, ‘Well, we seen the vehicle driving around.’ A lot of people noticed that the vehicle was not a familiar car, but no one went ahead and called the police," she said.

That is what Arnold wants people to do.

"If you see something, you got to say something, and now we're saying if you know something, do something," Arnold added.