When it gets hot, that means more people are out. Calls for service increase, and crime increases because you have more people out and about. You also have the challenge with some children who are out of school. If they don’t have enough to do, they might cause problems. Sometimes people get mad because they’re hot and irritable, and that could be the case, but you certainly just have more people out and about. As far as how to protect themselves, they just need to continue to do what they always do: Be conscientious and mindful of their surroundings. Be mindful of who’s around you. Don’t leave things in your car so that people can take them. Same thing with your house — if you see people that shouldn’t be there, or you see something that doesn’t look right, or if you see a car parked in front of someone’s house or in their driveway, and you know it shouldn’t be there, call 911. Crime is down citywide. In the Southwest Division, we’re minus 13 percent in overall crime. The officers have done an excellent job. And we certainly don’t do this by ourselves. The citizens in Oak Cliff — we have said this over and over and we sound like a broken record — but if you see something suspicious in your neighborhood, please call 911 and report it. When citizens do that, it puts criminals on notice. They’re going to go somewhere else where people don’t do that.

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