Dallas City Wire

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has created the Mayor’s Safe Communities Initiative Fund.

The fund, which is supported by the Communities Foundation of Texas, will accept donations to help pay for crime-reduction programs recommended by the task force. 

“Too many of society’s systemic ills fall to the police to solve. But public safety is everyone’s responsibility, not just that of law enforcement,” Johnson said in the news release. “The Task Force showed us how we could reduce violent crime with proven strategies that are driven by data and supported by our communities. This fund will help us turn the task force’s recommendations into reality, which means safer neighborhoods that don’t need to rely as much on police.”

According to the City of Dallas, recommendations suggested by the task force include remediating blighted buildings and abandoned lots in high-violence locations, adding outdoor lighting in locations where nighttime violence has been most severe, utilizing schools to deliver group support that teaches kids to pause before they act, and training messengers from within high-violence neighborhoods as “violence interrupters” to stop conflicts from escalating into gun violence.