Dinner out with friends wasn't so bad after all. His shoptalk still bores you to tears; she didn't complain too much about their kids. Now, time to get home and relax.

Bang, you are a crime statistic. As you wander among the empty spaces that once held your stuff - "Geez, I just bought that TiVo" - it occurs to you to call the police.

And starting this week, Dallas police officers will come to your home and help you evaluate the mess the burglars left. For about 15 years, police took your report over the phone and gave you an incident number for your insurance company. Officers physically responded only if the crime was in progress or the bad guy was still lurking around.

Theft and burglary - someone stealing your stuff from inside or outside your home - are far and away the most common big-city crimes. Your chances of being a homicide or rape victim, while horrifying to consider, are statistically very low.

In Dallas, you are about 100 times more likely to be burgled than slain, and of the city's 22,300 reported burglaries last year, only 8.1 percent resulted in arrests.

The new policy - recommended in a City Council-commissioned efficiency study - is intended to bump up that clearance rate. If nothing else, it will give police a better chance to connect with regular-citizen crime victims and offer a few crime prevention tips.

And speaking of efficiency studies and positive public relations, that burglary victim probably doesn't want his 911 call mixed in with high-weed complaints or questions about water rates.

You may have seen the story on Saturday's front page about Dallas' 911 system, troubled mostly because the city call center handles both 911 requests and non-emergency 311 calls.

The city has started a trial program in which some operators focus on 311 calls and others on 911. For now, they are covering this split with overtime. A permanent fix, officials say, is staffing at least 24 new positions. City Manager Mary Suhm says she'll consider any staffing proposal during the annual budgeting process.

With call volume up from 2.3 million in 1995 to 3.6 million in 2005, let's use our heads here. As the new police burglary policy shows, public safety - and the perception thereof - must be a priority. This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow. This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow. More headlines...

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