DFW Crime & Public Safety — Understanding the Metro's Safety Landscape
Dallas-Fort Worth covers 13 counties and over 9,000 square miles — crime patterns vary dramatically by neighborhood. The Dallas Police Department operates 14 patrol divisions across the city, while Fort Worth PD runs a Real-Time Crime Center that monitors citywide camera networks. Tarrant County Sheriff's Office and Dallas County Constable Precincts handle county-level law enforcement. DDN aggregates crime reporting from DPD, FWPD, and county-level sources to give DFW residents a comprehensive view of public safety across the metro.
A Plano principal’s job is on the line after a teacher in her school was arrested and accused of sexually abusing multiple students.Plano ISD Child Sex Abuse InvestigationThe Plano Independent School District placed Brinker Elementary School Principal Jennifer King on leave last month. She has been the school's principal since 2024.A lawsuit accuses her of failing to report allegations against former second grade teacher Paul Campbell. The suit states King received at least one report of Campbell touching a student inappropriately but she did not investigate, did not tell law enforcement, and did not report anything to the Texas Education Agency.Campbell is currently in the Collin County jail charged with one count of sexual abuse of a child and three counts of indecency with a child.Although King is a defendant in the civil lawsuit, she is not facing any criminal charges.On Thursday night, school board members voted 7-0 to send a termination and non-renewel letter to King, beginning t
A North Texas woman was sentenced to life in prison after admitting she smothered her young niece with a pillow.A Tarrant County jury found Mercia Sneed guilty of capital murder and injury to a child causing serious bodily harm for the 2019 death of 9-year-old Melodi Sneed.She was then given two life sentences without the possibility of parole."Today is about Melodi," Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Charlie Boulware said during closing arguments. "Melodi's family has waited seven years, seven long years. We are asking for a swift verdict for Melodi's family and for Melodi."Mansfield police arrested Sneed after they found the 9-year-old unresponsive in her family’s new home on Eagle Drive on July 27, 2019. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.According to prosecutors, the murder happened after all the other adults in the house had gone to bed and Melodi had fallen asleep on the couch in the game room. Sneed told her 13-year-old son to leave the room, and then she pre
A Plano man charged with the murder of his estranged wife answered a police welfare check with a blood stain on his shirt, and the couple's young children were at home at the time of the alleged crime.Plano murder arrest37-year-old Jake Bigoni was arrested on Wednesday, August 12, after police conducted a welfare check for Eliana Bigoni, his estranged wife. Police found her body at Bigoni's apartment in the 4700 block of Charles Place.Bigoni was initially arrested and charged with felony abuse of a corpse. On Thursday, Plano Police obtained a murder warrant for Bigoni and booked him into the Collin County Jail.An arrest warrant details that police conducted a welfare check on Eliana after a friend reported she failed to show up at an 8:30 a.m. breakfast on Wednesday and was unable to contact her.The friend told police Eliana and Jake Bigoni had been separated and going through a divorce, and Eliana was going to pick the couple's 2 and 5-year-old children up that morning.Police were ale
The suspect accused of killing an Everman ISD teacher's aide in a Thursday road rage shooting on I-20 in Fort Worth continued driving to work after the incident, an arrest affidavit states.Fort Worth road rage shootingFort Worth Police arrested 37-year-old Patrick Lawrence on Thursday afternoon.He has been charged with the murder of LaTaivia Davis. Davis was killed in a road rage shooting in the 3700 block of Highway I-20, which is just past the Hulen Mall near Benbrook.According to an arrest affidavit, police spoke to witnesses at the scene, who described hearing a loud bang and seeing a blue vehicle with its window down exiting I-20 towards Granbury Road.Davis' red vehicle was found with a bullet hole in the passenger window. Davis had been shot in her upper forearm and was pronounced deceased at the scene.Fort Worth Police cadets were brought in to search for evidence on I-20, and found a single bullet casing near Granbury Road where the shooting occurred.A witness's vehicle recorde
The Plano Police Department is asking the public for help locating a teenager with special needs who has not been seen since Monday.Plano teen missingPlano Police are looking for 14-year-old Nicholas Oshaun Brown, Police say he has not been seen leaving his home on Monday, August 10.Brown has multiple mental health diagnoses that require medication, and has a recent history of self-harm ideations.He is on probation for assault and theft, and has an active directive to apprehend him for a probation violation.Police are asking for the public's help in locating Brown.If you have any information on Brown's whereabouts, call 9-1-1 and reference Plano Police incident #2026-158886. You can also call Plano Police Det. Cole at (972) 941-0044 or email acole@plano.gov.
A Dallas man was handed a lengthy prison sentence for drunkenly dragging a Hudson Oaks Police officer through a grocery store parking lot, adding another conviction to the man's long legal history.Hudson Oaks Police Officer DraggedOn Wednesday, August 5, 51-year-old Jose Gonzales was found guilty of assault on a peace officer and evading arrest in a vehicle. A Parker County jury sentenced him to 55 years for the assault conviction and 17 years for the evading arrest conviction. The sentences will be served concurrently.Gonzales was convicted for a 2025 incident where he dragged Hudson Oaks Police Officer Hector Velasquez through an H-E-B parking lot.Witnesses saw Gonzales acting erratically and driving the wrong way down roads in Hudson Oaks. Gonzales pulled into an H-E-B parking lot nearby before intermittently passing out.When Hudson Oaks Police arrived, they noticed several alcoholic beverages in the front seat of Gonzales' car, and that he appeared to be intoxicated.Hudson Oaks Pol
Royse City Police have not released officer body camera footage from last week's public pool incident, but the family involved says the arresting officer failed to de-escalate the situation and used excessive force.Royse City public pool arrestsTwo women arrested by the Royse City Police Department last week viewed officer body camera and dash camera footage of the incident on Thursday.At a press conference Thursday, lawyers representing Janiaca Wheeler and her daughter Amaiyah Allen-Smith said the officer involved in the arrest is Royse City PD's training officer.The officer is on paid administrative leave following viral video of the incident, which shows the arresting officer pulling Wheeler's hair and pushing other women while making the arrests.The family's attorneys said police were called after an argument between the family and an older man at the pool. After police arrived and told the family to leave, they say police followed them to their car and told them to stay off the ro
A Texas State Trooper shot and killed an armed person during a response to a mental health crisis Saturday afternoon, state law enforcement officials said.
