Southwest Dallas is a neighborhood of 99,700 residents in Dallas, about 8 miles southwest of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Southwest Dallas in Dallas safe?
Crime in Southwest Dallas is high by national standards, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of C-. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 87% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Southwest Dallas. Property crime grades better than violent crime here, C+ against D+. Dallas as a whole grades C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Southwest Dallas run from A to F, so check the map below.
C-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 357 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
13% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Southwest Dallas as a whole, and 87% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Southwest Dallas scores 357.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Southwest Dallas, Dallas, TX at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Southwest Dallas in Dallas, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in Southwest Dallas
Murders run high for a C-graded neighborhood. Southwest Dallas has 0.15 murders a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a C-graded US neighborhood, the figure is 0.07.
Vehicle theft at more than triple the US rate. Southwest Dallas has 9.8 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
How Southwest Dallas compares within Dallas
Crime varies widely across Southwest Dallas: 30% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 44% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Southwest Dallas run from A to F; 2% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
30%26%44%
A or B 30%C 26%D or F 44%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Southwest Dallas has less crime than 11 of the 24 neighborhoods in Dallas. It covers much of the Southwest Dallas, Winnetka Heights, and Wolf Creek areas.
Is crime going up in Dallas?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Dallas as a whole is down 26%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 8.8 to 6.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 35 to 33 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 16%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
DallasUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Dallas. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Dallas
Violent, US
Property, Dallas
Property, US
2016
-14%
+4%
-2%
+15%
2017
-13%
+4%
-8%
+12%
2018
-13%
+0%
-5%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+6%
+4%
+4%
-8%
2021
-2%
+6%
+4%
-10%
2022
-11%
+5%
+8%
-6%
2023
-23%
+2%
+15%
-7%
2024
-26%
-4%
-4%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Southwest Dallas
CrimeGrade™ estimates Southwest Dallas has about 53 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 42% more than the US as a whole and close to Dallas as a whole.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
Assault is the most common crime in Southwest Dallas, about 36% of everything reported, but murder costs more, because each one does far more harm.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in Dallas
The Dallas Police Department polices Southwest Dallas; these figures cover Dallas as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Dallas as a whole, 43% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 54% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (51%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (47%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (54%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Stores and businesses (30%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (33%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Southwest Dallas compares with nearby neighborhoods
Southwest Dallas has less crime than 7 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from Southwest Dallas. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with neighborhoods of similar size and density, Southwest Dallas has more crime than 78% of them.
Parking lots, night lighting and walkability in Southwest Dallas
One thing sets Southwest Dallas apart: it has 0.1 bars and nightlife spots for every 1,000 residents, against 0.6 nationally. Places like that tend to report less assault and robbery, yet assault and robbery run higher here than that would suggest.
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.2.3 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 89% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Lit at nightSatellite images show which neighborhoods are lit at night, a sign of busy streets and businesses. Brightly lit places tend to report more theft and vandalism.100% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 85% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 78% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (19 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 76% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Bars and nightlifeBars, lounges, clubs and casinos. Places with more bars tend to report more assault and robbery.0.1 per 1,000 residentsUS: 0.6Lower than for 78% of residents of US city neighborhoods
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs Southwest Dallas
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Southwest Dallas about $2,702 a year per household, more than double the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $323 million a year, or $3,244 per resident.
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in Southwest Dallas means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in Southwest Dallas, Dallas, TX average a SchoolGrade of D: 38% of students test proficient, against 25% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Southwest Dallas on SchoolGrade
