Dallas leaders discuss Deep Ellum safety upgrades

Dallas City Council members want to see major changes to make Deep Ellum safe after four people were murdered in three separate shootings Halloween weekend. Good evening, I'm Clarice Tinsley. The police chief called the ordeal a bad night, saying it had ample officers on duty to respond. Fox 4's Lori Brown, live at City Hall. Lori. The police chief said that the department's response to the three separate shootings was so fast that one officer was even able to revive one of the victims while waiting for paramedics to arrive before the four deaths and multiple injuries all unfolded within 75 minutes in the early morning hours after Halloween beginning at 12:20 a.m. today, Dallas Police Chief Daniel Como said the department had a plan in place for the Halloween celebrations and was staffed up with With 20 more officers than usual for a total of... I heard some people say, well, do like Bill Street, for instance, which is one way in, one way out. It's actually two ways in, two way out on Bill Street. Much easier to deal with than Deep Ellum being. Approximately four streets, east, west, north, and south. That's a lot of entry points and a lot of manpower that would be needed for that. That just wouldn't be consistent throughout week to week. State Fair has a perimeter around the fairgrounds. Looking at these through more of a special event type. Uh, evening, but consistently. So again, I know that everyone wants to have everything on the table. I want to make sure that, that we don't just give up and say, no, we can't do this for X reason, but that we go back and look at every option that is, uh, that is out there. The chief says whatever plan the city ends up with, he wants it to be implemented consistently every weekend. He also said additional cameras could be useful. An arrest affidavit for one suspect shows flock cameras were used to help get in contact with witnesses. I've never turned down more cameras, and I've said it over and over, and I will say it again. Cameras help us bring closure to a lot of families when bad things happen. Without these cameras, we wouldn't already have the arrests that we have, and without cameras, we wouldn't be able to make the arrests that we will make because we're going to bring closure for these families, and a lot of it is because of the technology that we're utilizing. The department is also working to crack down on people drinking and loitering in parking lots, and it is working with DART on fare enforcement heading into Deep Ellum. The department says it is also working with the federal government to get stiffer penalties for felons caught illegally carrying firearms.