There’s an interesting piece in Saturday’s Morning News about police “clearance” rates, or in other words, the percentage of crimes that are actually solved.
Essentially, Dallas police do a fairly good job or solving murders, solving about seven out of every 10, but the chances of them catching those responsible for home burglaries, beauty shop holdups, or car thefts is slim — for example, they solve about seven of every 100 burglaries.
Obviously, when resources are thin you have to put your people on the most significant (and high profile) cases. In the past I’ve asked Deputy Police Chief Jan Easterling about the rate of solving non-violent type crimes, such as car break-ins, to which she said something to that effect.
She has also said that when police do arrest suspects in theft, burglary type incidents, they are often set free in no time at all, and that that can be very frustrating for the police.
At the end of this DMN article there are several stories from local victims of unsolved crimes — no less than three are from the “White Rock” or “East Dallas” area.
