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In 1986, Dallas came to lead the nation's major cities as far as the overall crime rate, and Fort Worth

saw a 30% increase each month for six months compared to the year before.

That increase concerns major crimes, defined as vehicle theft, burglary, robbery, assault, rape, and murder.

Though Arlington is perhaps unjustifiably left out of the popular moniker, the Dallas-Fort Worth

Metroplex, by 1986, it was a modestly large city at 200,000 residents.

The crime rate in Arlington, of course, was overshadowed by the larger cities, but that year the staggering number of major crimes

prompted city officials to propose the allocation of funds to doing something about the problem.

But exactly what that something was, they couldn't agree on.

While some argued for a larger more modernized police force, others pointed out the lack of a correlation between the number of officers and the crime rate.

Whatever the case, crime is nibbling away at us.

Arlington City Councilman Dick Malik commented in 87.

The previous year had taken quite a toll on the city.

At that time, many normal folks and grifters alike blamed Satan worship for violent crime,

and some studies since have taken a slightly more scientific approach, suggesting lead pollution and poisoning could

account for at least a portion of the problem in the 1970s and 1980s.

There was certainly a correlation there, but there was a

a simpler answer, one that could almost always be found alongside a rising crime,

growth.

For Arlington, Texas, that was certainly a factor.

But when considering the effects of violent crime, not everything can be explained as a factor

...