A NEW, FRIENDLIER TACTIC FOR CRIME FIGHTING

Dallas Police Department’s Northeast Division is trying something new to combat crime in the Forest-Audelia area. Over the years, DPD has used warrant roundups and special operations, among other tactics, as means to address that troubled, crime riddled region.

Recently, the police threw a festival featuring a popular motivational speaker, a three-point free-throw contest and a rap battle in the Aldi parking lot. It was the first in a series of new community events and projects aimed at improving relationships between police officers and neighborhood youths in that northeastern sector of Lake Highlands, says Deputy Chief Andrew Acord.

“There are a lot of programs for kids, but not for teenagers,” he says, adding that crime in the region is “not just something you can arrest your way out of.”

While violence is an evident problem in the Forest-Audelia area, especially among young men, Acord says actual, organized gangs are not particularly problematic around here.

“You hear people talking about gangs over at Forest-Audelia,” Acord says. “Well, in my opinion, they are, maybe, kind-a, sorta, but not really. They are mostly just kids who are astray. They think they are gangs, but in the true sense of the word they are not.”

Most of the teens involved in Forest-Audelia crime are from Lake Highlands or Berkner High Schools. Sometimes it is that rivalry that sparks fighting, police say.

The first speaker was Lamont Levels. Levels, Acord says, is “the real thing” when it comes to gangs.

“Lamont is a former real gang member who started the Bloods in South Dallas. Lamont made hundreds of thousands of dollars, and one night, going in to collect $300,000, he’s met by one of his own people who shoots him in the face.”

Today, Levels is permanently blind, and he visits high schools to tell his story to students and, hopefully, nudge them in a different direction. His message is that “he lost his vision so he could see,” Acord says.

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of October when a car crashed into the walkway of a Lake Highlands building overnight, strewing bricks all around and apparently totaling the vehicle

Abrams, the Skillman Abrams Shopping Center, where the car crashed, probably due to rain, alcohol or both, police say license plates were removed from the car before the driver took off. Police planned to identify the car by its vehicle identification number