Irving crime rate falls to all-time low; cleanup initiatives credited

12:00 AM CST on Thursday, January 29, 2009

By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
bformby@dallasnews.com

Irving has built a diverse portfolio in its fight against crime.

Some efforts, like the Criminal Alien Program, which turns over arrestees for deportation, have drawn protests and national attention. Others, like stronger building standards and code enforcement, have drawn lawsuits and criticism.

Yet some longtime critics of the city are beginning to compliment officials on what they see as progress after years of neglect.

Officials say the controversial changes have done something else: Irving’s 2008 crime rate is the lowest in recorded history, besting an all-time record set just one year earlier.

“I don’t really think it was one big thing,” Police Chief Larry Boyd said. “It was a combination of a lot of efforts.”

Still, not everyone’s sold on how police and code enforcement officers are fighting crime as they inarguably change the landscape of one of the area’s largest suburbs.

“The city’s out of control,” said Kathy Carlton, director of government affairs for the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas.

Multifamily homes

Many of its initiatives target multifamily dwellings.

Tudor Lane, a half-mile-long street near Lamar Middle School, was once lined with fourplexes. Police said it was one of the most crime-ridden streets in the area. Today, many of those fourplexes are gone. Boyd said the crime rate on the block has fallen 75 percent.

Cleaning up Tudor Lane was one of the first priorities of a new collaboration that realigned code enforcement under the Police Department. The move centered around the broken-windows theory that minor violations such as graffiti and unkempt buildings breed criminal activity.

Residents had mixed reactions. Some said officers went too far by ticketing children for jaywalking. But others said the city saved them from negligent landlords who, among other things, didn’t fix heaters in the winter.

Code enforcement director Teresa Adrian said the city proactively targets some complexes because residents are often afraid to report problems.

“People were a little nervous in the beginning,” she said of Tudor Lane. “But when they saw results, they started coming to us. It opened up the community.”

The realignment as well as the Criminal Alien Program, which has detained more than 4,000 illegal immigrants since September 2006, have drawn inquiries from other cities looking to repeat Irving’s results.

Shutting the doors

Citywide, Irving has shut down 19 multifamily properties that housed more than 730 units the city deemed substandard. Three motels have also been shuttered.

The moves haven’t come without a cost: The city has spent more than $200,000 so far to defend a handful of lawsuits brought on by the building closures.

Boyd is counting on another multifamily initiative to help further lower the crime rate this year. Managers at apartment complexes given low code enforcement ratings began attending mandatory crime-free training this month.

Soon, they’ll begin conducting background checks on new lease applicants. Managers leasing to tenants who commit certain crimes, including sexual assault, arson and the manufacture or sale of drugs, could face Class C misdemeanors.

Carlton said her group wants properties kept up and crime-free. But she thinks the city is using flawed logic by tying the new requirements to code enforcement rankings rather than crime data. And, she said, the city is nitpicking properties for minor infractions that can bring major fines.

Carlton also said the code enforcement rankings are unfair because there are penalties for a property’s age. A property is also penalized if it doesn’t have a fire sprinkler system, even if one wasn’t required when the complex was built.

Adrian said uncontrollable factors are weighted less than simple maintenance procedures. But Carlton said managers as well as property owners and investors are upset about the new rules.

Adrian said a collaborative spirit among city officials, managers and tenants is spreading citywide. She said several multifamily property owners are taking care of problems proactively.

Doug Harper, who moved to south Irving in the 1980s, has been a longtime critic of what he calls neglect by city officials. He and other residents used to complain at City Council meetings about what they say was lax code enforcement.

But he said things are noticeably changing around the city. And the tone aimed at council members has, too.

Boyd said the initiatives are about more than numbers, though.

“They’re aimed at reducing the amount of disorder in a city, not just actual crime, but people’s perceptions and fears of crime,” he said.