Pleasant Grove residents becoming more concerned as auto thefts increase
DALLAS – People in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood in Dallas tell CBS News Texas there's a growing concern over auto thefts in the area, and the lack of a quick response from police.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said the number of calls are overwhelming the police department and there's a new plan aimed to tackle this problem when someone calls in a theft.
Starting next Monday, DPD will take those reports through recorded call conferencing using limited-duty police officers to take the information, meaning instead of waiting for police to arrive on scene, they'll talk to someone over the phone.
The idea is to cut down on the wait time and get the vehicles into the system faster.
Rose Fullylove lives in Pleasant Grove and this weekend said she heard a loud boom and found out someone in a stolen car drove through her neighborhood, lost control, crashed and hit her car then left the car they crashed.
Fullylove and her neighbors kept calling police that day.
They were told not the touch the crime scene but it took police more than 12 hours to show up.
"We were looking at a car running, all day, fumes, it could have caught on fire, anything. It's frustrating to us, we're homeowners, we pay out taxes and we should be able to get some help just like everybody else does," said Fullylove.
"When I called 911, she knew immediately what street this was, and said you're calling about such and such, well, we know but we can't get anybody to get out there, you know there's a Cowboys game today," said neighbor Mary Hearn.
With just a few weeks left in the year, there have been more than 17,700 thefts reported to DPD. That's an increase of more than 32% from this time last year.