What does a new police station in South Dallas have to do with Preston Hollow neighborhoods such as Preston Hollow North?
As North Central Deputy Chief David Elliston explains, South Central’s opening in 2007 will realign the boundaries of every existing division, including his own.
“It will definitely affect North Central. There are about six different scenarios. Last week Chief Kunkle said he didn’t see North Central going (south) past LBJ,” Elliston says.
The potential realignment was the topic of debate at a recent Preston Hollow North homeowners association meeting.
While nothing has been decided yet, the prospect of a North Central realignment has some Preston Hollow residents concerned. Longer response times, new patrol officers and the effect on Extended Neighborhood Patrol programs top the list.
Residents worry that the parts of Preston Hollow no longer in North Central will be split between the Northwest and Northeast divisions. That could potentially result in longer response times, since both of those substations serve areas with higher crime rates.
Nancy Sims, director of police patrols for Preston Hollow North, points to high activity areas such as Greenville Avenue in the Northeast division as well as hotspots in the Northwest division.
“In Northwest, you have Harry Hines and Webb Chapel,which are more crime-hidden areas. Obviously the police officers will have to spend more time there.”
John Baker, president of The Meadows Neighborhood Association, says response time is key.
“It wouldn’t matter as long as our response time is good or improved,” he says.
For neighborhoods such as Preston Hollow North that hire off-duty police officers to provide an additional police presence called Extended Neighborhood Patrols (ENP), the realignment could affect staffing for its paid patrols. Currently the neighborhood use officers from North Central, the substation that serves the neighborhood. Because the officers have to use a squad car from the division that patrols the neighborhood, if Preston Hollow North continues to use officers from North Central after a boundary realignment, the officers would have to drive across town to pick up vehicles, causing scheduling problems.
Don Waddington is the ENP liaison for Preston Hollow East Homeowners Association. He thinks the realignment won’t make much difference – even if his neighborhood is cut out of North Central.
“As long as we can still have access to off-duty police officers, we’re really not that concerned. In fact, with the North Central headquarters way out on McCallum, Northwest and Northeast might be even closer.
And the addition of South Central could actually improve response times because, as Elliston says, the city would be divided into seven divisions instead of six.
“We don’t want to split up neighborhoods, and we want to keep response times low,” Elliston says. “We’re looking at crime rates and call loads. Then we look at natural barriers like 75 and the Tollroad. There are a whole slew of things we’re looking at.”
No official realignment plan has been released, including the location of the South Central division. And while City Councilman Mitchell Rasansky has mentioned to at least one HOA president that there will be town hall meetings to address the community’s concerns, District 12 Councilmember Ron Natinsky cautions that past police division realignments were done with little or no public input.
