NEW DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT CRIME REPORTS SYSTEM MAKES LESS INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC

The Dallas Police Department in June upgraded a 40-year-old system that made police reports available to the public online. But the new system offers much less information than the previous one. Online police reports previously offered limited narratives about crimes — anything from a sentence to a couple of paragraphs describing the crime. Now the online reports list the type of crime, location, time and date, but they offer no specific information, no narrative, on the crime. That’s because the new system requires two data entry fields — one public and one for internal police purposes. The old system had just one data field that would cut information off at a certain point in the narrative. When the new system first rolled out in June, patrol officers began copy and pasting the same narratives into both data entry fields. That resulted in confidential information inappropriately being made public. So the police decided to keep all narratives out of public view until they can find a solution, says Maj. Robert Sherwin. “A lot of people are going to say ‘we want it back the way it was,’ and that’s not going to happen,” Sherwin says. Neighborhood crime watch groups also have complained that not all crimes in their areas are being reported online. That’s because lawyers advised the police to omit any crime that involved a juvenile suspect. Since many crimes have an unknown suspect, DPD was omitting from public view any report with an unknown suspect on the idea that the suspect could be a juvenile. But the department since has reversed course on that, and reports with unknown suspects should be appearing online now, Sherwin says. —Rachel Stone

THE ADVOCATE WILL CONTINUE TO FOLLOW CHANGES TO THE DPD CRIME REPORTING SYSTEM. Visit lakehighlands.advocatemag.com for updates.

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CRIME NUMBERS |

Age of the youngest witness to the shooting of Brenda Gomez-Llanes at the Montecito Palms apartments 3

Number of children Gomez-Llands shared with Nohel Francisco-Sanchez, her alleged murderer 13

Rounds of ammo, along with one pistol, found in the suspect’s pocket when police arrested him for murder; a crowd of witnesses held him down until officers arrived

Lake Highlands High School’s faculty and students are mourning the death of LHHS teacher Joel Rosenzweig, who died in late October of post-operative heart failure. After spending years in the TV and film industry, he began teaching theater in 2000. Rosenzweig was also the faculty sponsor for Lake Cinematique, a film club that garnered many awards at Dallas’ 24 Hour Video Race over the years, and for the Alley Cats, the school’s bowling team. “Mr. Rosenzweig loved teaching, and he was always the voice or advocate for those he felt were being mistreated,” teacher Candice Nichols said during a tribute at the school. “He always had the guts to stand up and challenge what he thought was wrong his heart was always to be an advocate for the underdog, whether that was a fellow teacher or a student.” Rosenzweig leaves behind his wife of more than 22 years, Joan; children Marc, Sarah and Gwen; grandson Mason and brother Barney. In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations to the Richardson Independent School District Scholarship Fund.

Lake Highlands High School and Richardson ISD administrators postponed a plan to repurpose the Lake Highlands Freshman Center and send future ninth graders to Lake Highlands High School. The plan, proposed as part of a solution to overcrowding at feeder schools, would have meant using the LHFC building for vocational and early college programs. After strong opposition, administrators decided to delay a decision and form a committee to study and make recommendations regarding the use of the center as well as finding solutions to perpetually increasing enrollment in Lake Highlands schools.

Community

Lake Highlands resident Brad Miller in October raced the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. Miller’s training was interrupted when a September house fire destroyed everything he and his family — wife Michelle and children Mitch and Quinn (and dog Roux) — owned.

Neighbors rallied to help the Millers replace essential items. Fellow Lake Highlands Elementary parents collected clothing and household necessities, for example, and fellow members of the White Rock Running Co-op chipped in to buy Miller a new pair of athletic shoes, in which he completed the 26.2 miles.

SOURCE: Dallas Police Department

The Dallas Park Board and the Park and Recreation Department opened the Lake Highlands Trail in October with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Phase one, featuring more than two miles of paved trail, begins at Ferndale between Faircrest and Vistadale and runs east along the power lines. It ends at Lake Highlands North Park. Design work has begun on phase two of the trail, which will extend to the Lake Highlands Town Center, Park and Recreation officials say. The trail is part of the department’s 135-mile system, and their goal is to have 270 miles in the next 10 years.

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