Kelli Smith

Reporter covering criminal justice, healthcare, housing and more at The Lab Report Dallas. @dallasnews alumna. El Paso raised. 📩 [email protected].

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

🧵 Life news!: I’m leaving @dallasnews after 4.5 great years, but I’m not going far.

I’m thrilled to announce I’m joining @SharonFGrigsby and @goodmoine at The Lab Report Dallas, an independent newsroom powered by the Child Poverty Action Lab. https://t.co/Vxlt79JNz4

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

In east Oak Cliff, a vacant lot in a high-crime area is undergoing a quiet transformation.

My dispatch from Dallas’ Prosperity Park, a site now run by kids:

https://t.co/a8ZBbDi9fA

[Aarón Torres @AaronTorres_]

‘Teachers Are Going to Hate It’: How Social Media Apps Hooked Teens at School https://t.co/4fHlefoJQz via @NYTimes

[Marc Duvoisin @MarcDuvoisin]

Police officers have become fixtures in Texas schools since the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. Some have used heavy-handed tactics on children, often in response to minor misbehavior, an @nytimes @ExpressNews investigation found.
https://t.co/1SnSmr1c5u

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

Dallas used pandemic relief funds to fix houses in Oak Cliff and elsewhere. But in the Tenth Street Historic District, promises remain broken.

An important @goodmoine story worth the time to read:
https://t.co/uKCUU0pAEO

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

Some of the detained said they'd already placed in housing and had just returned that morning to gather their belongings.

For @labreportdallas, I dove into what happened at the break of dawn last Thursday—and the debate over Dallas' homelessness strategy:
https://t.co/gHLBZmJl7u

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

After 47 people were connected to housing or treatment, a major South Dallas homeless camp was set to close Thursday via police and city crews.

Housing Forward, which led the initiative, says it didn't expect police to detain all 23 people they came across that morning. 🧵👇

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

@TheTexanRhino Thank you so much 🙏

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

281 detentions. $500 fines. A mounting pile of warrants.

Records show a new Dallas PD team has zip-tied unhoused people across 61 locations in a pivot toward enforcement. My latest @labreportdallas on the city’s new approach—and the alarm it’s sounding:
https://t.co/alx89BHy60

[Alex Nguyễn @alexnguyen2311]

Breaking @TexasTribune: Dallas PD revise ICE policy after Gov. Abbott threatened funding. Most notably, the new version cut language that says officers may not prolong detention to further investigate people's immigration status or to hold them for ICE. https://t.co/hUPQfDphUi

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

Not long ago, Dallas' juvenile justice system reached a crisis point. Families were decrying inhumane conditions, and researchers ID’d kids who hadn’t needed to be jailed at all.

County leaders say that’s begun to change—and a new report backs that up:
https://t.co/UJjl7toIVI

[Matt Goodman @goodmoine]

The foster care system is in big trouble in North Texas. A baby and an infant have died. A judge today appointed a receiver over the nonprofit handling case management. Before the ruling, @SharonFGrigsby had spent weeks in court watching things go wrong. https://t.co/PDiwlDWAbV

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

After DPD faced a spike in violence in 2020, priorities appeared to shift. Patrol staffing fell 12% from 2020-24, and response times shot up.

The patrol bureau began to grow again in 2025—but some neighborhoods are benefiting more than others.

More here:
https://t.co/mocq3HoKR6

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

For weeks I analyzed where Dallas PD allocates patrol officers and what that says about its priorities. It raised a complicated question: How do top cops manage staffing for perception vs. risk in a big city like Dallas?

I tried to make sense of the data for @labreportdallas.

[Yoni Appelbaum @YAppelbaum]

BREAKING: The Border Patrol's Greg Bovino has been ousted from his role of "Commander at Large"—and Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski could be next to lose their jobs, sources tell @NickMiroff

[Seung Min Kim @seungminkim]

“As of Saturday evening, the family said they had still not heard from anyone at a federal law enforcement agency about their son’s death.” https://t.co/5yoZF8f9rI

[CBS News Texas @CBSNewsTexas]

A non-profit fed thousands of hungry Dallas ISD students. A CBS News Texas investigation found that when the work stopped, the fundraising didn't. https://t.co/G6B6hco5pn

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

🚨 The Lab Report is looking for our fourth writer! Come join our small team writing in-depth stories about issues affecting Dallas families—from healthcare, housing, criminal justice, to transportation, and more.

Happy to answer any questions. 👇

https://t.co/nRVjKTDoKB

[Ari Sen @ArijitDSen]

🚨 🌖This is my first — and last — story for @CBSNews

Across the country hundreds of officers accused of crime are working lucrative off-duty jobs. Most police policies do nothing to stop them.

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

We noted this trend today in @labreportdallas's weekly story, which is a look-ahead to 2026.

Other topics we're monitoring: DART, housing preservation, healthcare costs, and the county jail. ⤵️
https://t.co/3GcS3JSjhj

[Kelli Smith @kellixsmith]

The stats are in, and they confirm a big trend: Dallas ended 2025 with 141 murders, a *10-year low.*

To put that in perspective:
📉 43 fewer people murdered than in 2024.
📉 Dallas' 4th lowest murder count since 1995.

A significant drop that has largely flown under the radar.