Less than a month ago, Deep Ellum business owners sounded the alarm that unruly revelers had turned Dallas’ premier entertainment district into “a war zone.”
A string of incidents over the July 4 holiday weekend — including the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Jonathan Santos, who was killed while attempting to break up a fight outside of the club Rodeo Dallas, which has since been temporarily shut down — had left community leaders saying “enough is enough.” City officials pledged to do better.
On Tuesday evening, Dallas’ Community Police Oversight Board returned from a month-long summer hiatus, and the first item on its agenda was a briefing “on the crime statistics from January to June 2025 in Deep Ellum.” The briefing would allow Dallas police officials to “answer general questions about public safety in the area,” the agenda said. A bullet point beneath the agenda item suggested that arrest data would help facilitate a “discussion” among the board, which is tasked with enhancing the public’s trust in the police department by promoting transparency in policing…