At the start of the new year, DART will begin a $16 million overhaul to its security system across buses, trains and stations. The upgrades will include new cameras and software.

As surrounding Dallas cities contemplate leaving their partnerships with DART, officials are highlighting recent safety measures within the transit system.

Ahead of the revamp, DART’s Board Chair Randall Bryant pointed to strides already made concerning safety. He presented recent findings at a special called joint meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Dallas Area Rapid Transit Board.

“I think it’s important that DART shares its story and shares the hard work that we’ve been doing from a board level to create the policies and to fund the operations,” Bryant said. “But also the hard work in men and women of our police force and our trans security officers and fair enforcement that are out there every day doing the work to increase safety levels, to prevent as many crimes that are happening.”

DART reports crimes against persons are down 21.98% when comparing Q2-Q4 FY’24 to 2025. Crimes against property are down some 28%.

Still, there’s work to be done. According to DART, it has the second-highest number of jail bookings of all departments and municipalities within Dallas County.

Bryant said tracking top repeat offenders is key to bringing those numbers down. Also, DART plans to work with law enforcement for what they call “more impactful” protections to discourage future offenses.

“The average time that people have been arrested for the same offense is four times. So, we’re trying to look at ways to create diversion programs,” Bryant said.

DART rider Eriq Rodriguez welcomes the improvements, although he said he’s been riding for about a year without an issue.

“I feel generally safe. I’ve never had any issues on the train. I know things have happened on the trains and stuff, but I’ve never been around it,” said Rodriguez.

DART hired more officers in FY’25 compared to any other single year.

Just last month, NBC 5 reported three shootings on DART trains within two months. Two of them were fatal.

Bryant said they’re working on prevention.

“I think there is still a perception of crime, and I think that continues to be addressed by putting more uniform presence on our system,” he said. “And that’s what the goal is to now have one person, one uniform presence on every train car and every station platform.”